Mass Effect: A new Life
by Hershel Greene
Summary: John Shepard, had a hard time getting over what happened to him and his squad during the Skyllian Blitz, it left him with dangerous and violent outbursts at minor provocations or when he or his friends are threatened he thought embracing God would help, but he will need a certain quarian friend to help him overcome his anger. Starts at ME1. Eventual Shepard/Tali relationship.
1. A New Crew, Old Friends

Mass Effect: A New Life

I

I, John Shepard awoke to the slow silent beeping of my alarm on my Omni-tool, I grudgingly move from my bed to find I am a few minutes late for the meeting with Captain Anderson, my long time friend since before I became an N7, to start on a new mission he had requested of me. It was dark in my apartment block, the only light that could be seen was that of the few stars through the window and the ships that would pass by when docking or leaving the station. I was to meet with Anderson and discuss the upcoming mission we would undertake with the Normandy and it's crew, I had never been on a ship Like the Normandy, it was classified as a SR-1 for stealth reconnaissance and was the first of it's type.

I hadn't seen my friend Anderson in a long time and would be late for my assignment from him, not a good start to the mission. "Shit, I'm late, Anderson won't be happy about this." I said while sleepily walking to the bathroom to make my self at least look presentable for the crew to make up for my tardiness. The days following up to today I had stayed up late to do paperwork for the mission I was about to embark on with the crew and Anderson, leading to my lateness, but it would all be for nothing because I couldn't even remember a lot of what I had read and what we were going to do. This was definitely not one of my better days.

Once I approached the mirror I noticed how dead I looked, excluding the scars, my eyes were bloodshot and were dark around the eyelid I could hardly see the blue color to my eyes either, I hadn't shaved in weeks ever since I had basically been moved to a desk job for the week. I shaved around my jaw but left the brown stubble around my mouth to form a goatee, I took a brush to comb my hair and long bangs over and to the back of my head in the way I usually wear it. After changing into my N7 officers uniform which was really uncomfortable and I only wore it because I would be with a new crew and if they were anything like the last few they would find it hard to deal with and to get used to me walking around in the more comfortable alliance soldiers attire like I usually did, and I would be meeting with Anderson and someone else I heard from the report I had to file, Niktor, Negan, Nalla, ah hell I don't know I'll find out when I get there

"Well I guess that's everything." As I was getting ready to leave I stopped myself when I remembered I had forgot something very important to me, my rosary, yes I believe in God. I'm Catholic, well at least I became religious after The Skyllian Blitz. I went through a lot after that, Anderson helped me get through it and took me to the various chapels considering I got transferred so much and ended up at different stations every few months Anderson always came with me for a while but thought I could do alright by myself when he left a few months ago, obviously my situation with an Admiral had got me into trouble and now he probably wanted me back with him. I was one of the many survivors that helped defend the colony of Elysium, but I was the only one that was awarded the Star of Terra for my work. The rosary wasn't mine to begin with or Anderson's but a Quarian friend of mine we called Richard Zachary, not a Quarian name I know but he was found abandoned in the station where me and my parents lived on and his exosuit had the Letters RZ on them or at least it was RZ when translated to English. So Richard and Zachary were the first two English names my parents thought of and named him that, considering they had never met a Quarian before and didn't know what Quarian name to choose, he was like a brother to me. _What am I doing reminiscing about old times when I need to be getting to the Normandy_.

I marched through the halls trying to locate the Normandy's docking bay, but to my disappointment I had never actually been there and spent most of my time in my cabin and didn't know where it was the Normandy was docked.

"Shepard." Came Admiral Diesburg's voice. "What exactly are you doing wondering about the halls, son."

_I don't like Diesburg, he is the type that didn't hold grudges but could still be an ass when it came down to actually talking to the man, this was the man that was behind my being transferred to this station to do all of this paperwork for a mission Anderson could have just briefed me on in about two minutes, even though the paperwork took the better part of the week. But he was my superior and I should treat him with respect, even if it was false respect._ "Yes Admiral Diesburg, I was actually looking for the Normandy to begin my mission with Captain Anderson. But I can't seem to remember where the Normandy is docked at, would you happen to know." I said less that politely and more sarcastically but I desperately needed to know where this Normandy was so I could get started with Anderson and the crew.

He eyed me with his blue eyes while he scratched at his blond, slightly graying hair. A Nazi if I'd ever seen one.

"Yes I believe it is down by docking port B-3." He said rather slowly, probably contemplating if it was really that dock or not, but I might as well as try there then. "Seriously Shepard, you need to better adapt to your surroundings and understand the station you're on, or you'll never make it in the military life, your parents should have taught you better than to wonder and instead seek help from your superiors, as they had many superiors." I tried hard not to shoot my mouth off at him again like when he started talking about my life during the Skyllian Blitz two weeks ago, I got kind of upset and may have tried to knock his lights out. But thankfully a few other officers held me back before I could actually hit him. So I kept silent before he sent me to another station and with more desk work for trying to assault him again, man, I really hated assholes like this that abused there status as a 'superior' to piss on their military servicemen.

"Yes sir, I'll head for the Normandy right now." _What a dick he is._ He walked away mumbling something else about my parents and how they would often get into trouble just like me,_ a bunch of bullshit is what it was, I'm not even sure how he knew my parents. But he's gone now and I have the location of the Normandy._

Approaching the doors to docking port B-3 I could see through the windows the Normandy. Wow it was a very big ship to be a stealth reconnaissance but of course all SR-1 means is that it stays off the enemy's radar well and has a cloaking system. The drive core on that thing would have to be pretty big to house all that power, but I doubt it will be anything too special, I always loved ships and how they worked, I was an engineer before my N7 days when I was just a pup stationed on Earth and later Elysium with my friend or adoptive brother Richard the Quarian, who had also enlisted as an Alliance soldier, of course he was treated very differently because he was alien and was basically a volunteer considering he is a Quarian and The Alliance is a human military. Entering through the doors past the decontamination and analysis room that scanned me with a bright blue light slowly going back and forth a few times over my head until the doors finally opened announcing, "Commander Shepard is on deck." That was a bit annoying considering I like to mess with and surprise my crew by silently observing their work as if I was a stiff for watching them do things by the book. This crew looked all to into what they were doing to be like a fun crew as I would say.

_Better ask the pilot where Captain Anderson is_, there was a strange Turian observing the pilot while he was getting ready to leave and mass relay jump to our destination, as we left from the station, the pilot stated. "The board is green, approach run started." Oh great I loved traveling through the mass relay's, while it made a few people sick that had never done it before, I was just glad to be leaving that dreadful station, run by Admiral Diesburg. After the jump The pilot continued running checks on the Normandy's systems. "Thrusters... check, Navigation... check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online, drift... just under 1500K.

The red and white Turian muttered in his robotic like voice. "1500 is good, your captain will be pleased." the Turian walked away to check on other members of the crew and to the Captain I assumed.

"I hate that guy." says the pilot, _hah this guy seems an easy enough sort to get along with._

"Nihlus gave you a complement, so you hate him?" _Oh yeah Nihlus that was that guy from the report, knew I'd find out. Well I guess that guy does have a point though he did give him a complement even if it did sound ungrateful, damn, the pilot, that guy, I really need to start learning peoples names._

"You remember to zip up your jump suit on your way out of the bathroom that's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy, and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible. Besides, Spectres are trouble, I don't like having him on board, call me paranoid." _Yeah I think I'll like this guy, I should probably find out what his name is now and that other guy._

"Your paranoid, the council helped fund this project they have a right to send someone along to protect their investment."

"Yeah that's the official story, but only an idiot believes the official story."

_Time for a bit of fun with these two._ "Hey, I don't mean to interrupt you two, you seem to be having a lovely honeymoon but I need to speak with Admiral Anderson, and would also like to get to know your names if you don't mind so I can report your behavior and attitude about that Spectre to Admiral Anderson." The two Alliance soldiers looked nervous at my unexpected arrival and the pilot started blubbering something about it just being a joke, _I should probably tell them I was just screwing around,_ as I started bursting out into laughter at the poor pilot who looked confused at my sudden mood change. "I was only kidding with you man I could care less about what people think of Spectres, I don't much like them myself, they abuse their power a lot."

The pilot started laughing along with me as if we were good friends. "Huh, that was nice, you nearly had me shitting my pants. I'm Joker by the way, and that is Kaiden." Kaiden nodded towards me and everyone seem to relax more once they realized what type of a commander I was.

"Why do they call you..." I had started before being interrupted by Anderson on the comm

"Joker, status report."

Joker had finally stopped laughing at my joke, which I was thankful for because it kind of got annoying but at least this meant this was a laid back crew, or just a weird pilot. "Everything is fine up here captain, oh and The Commander is here for you, I'll send him up."

"Sounds good joker, Anderson out."

_Damn, the crew already knows who I am, and I don't have a clue who they all are, I hope to have at least half the crew's names memorized in a week._ "I guess I'll head up then. Nice talking to you both." I made my way up to the command deck to find the Navigator, named Pressly, from my report apparently he was the type that fervently believed aliens were inferior to humanity. Which I didn't necessarily believe unless we were talking about Batarians, but the whole galaxy pretty much hated them, considering the lot of the are mostly pirates, or slavers. "Hello Pressly, I'm Commander Shepard just wanted to check up on some of the crew."

"Hello Commander I'm glad to have you aboard, your a hero to humanity Commander and are a wonderful addition to the Normandy."

"Glad to hear it Pressly I'll have to talk later as the Captain has a mission for me."

"Very good sir."

Walking past a soldier I notice him talking to the medic, who seems old and I can tell she has been in the Alliance long or just joined at a old age, unlikely. "Hello." I say as I'm walking by, but I am never the less stopped by the kid when he wants to talk.

"Commander you think we'll get to see some action down there, I'm new to the alliance and this'll be my first mission, and even cooler considering it will be with the, Commander Shepard." It's flattering that this kid likes me so much although knowing almost nothing about me other than by exploits during the blitz, but he needs to understand how a mission goes lest he get us all killed down there.

"Son, you shouldn't want to get into a fight that bad especially if this is your first, alien or no, if we have to take a life down there it effects you, and you need to understand glory should be the last thing on your list, and helping your squad should be first, even if that means staying back to examine the situation." He seemed hurt at my words like he wanted me to be proud of him as if I was his hero, and I realized I probably was, as much as I didn't like being the hero, the kid probably signed up to be like me. "All I meant is that you need to look out for you team too, okay Jenkins." I say as I'm looking at his name tag.

"Yes sir." He smiled and nodded, I gave a nod to the medic who I should introduce myself to later, but right now I need to see Anderson, after all this time it'll be good to see an old friend.

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Remember to review to tell me what I need to improve on as this is my first story. Thank you.


	2. The Beacon

Mass Effect: A new Life

II

As I made my way down to Anderson in the meeting room, where he was standing with Nihlus the Spectre Turian, I noticed them watching a vid of some sort. Cool maybe an action film, oh shit that's a vid of our men down on Eden Prime. A beautiful colony of ours but why is it being attacked, we need to get down there now and help them. We are all silent while watching the vid of our marines being killed by something down there, no telling what though considering we aren't at war with any of the council races. It's possible it is Batarians and if it is I would be glad to drop down there right now and make them remember why they aren't considered soldiers and instead pirates. A marine in pink and white armor comes to the aid of the marine taking the vid trying to help him while still fighting this foreign and unknown enemy, wow she's got some fight in her. Another marine comes to the man with the vid knowing we would be watching this, We're under heavy fire, taking heavy casualties... They... came out of nowhere. The marine is shot dead before he could say anything more, As the vid is ending a dark purple colored, sharp hand like ship comes down from the sky and past all of the shooting and fighting going on. Some marines stop to look up at it and are shot dead by their attackers.

Well it's definitely not Batarians, that ship if it is indeed a ship is massive and stuck a bit of fear into me, as this ship came down, the transmission cut out and we were left with static. That's a movie trailer if I'd ever seen one. "Sir, I think we should get down there and help those marines and fire on that big purple claw thing, I understand we don't know what it is or what it does, but I do know it's not ours and it's on our planet and that's enough reason to shoot it out of the galaxy."

"I'm afraid the Normandy isn't prepared to take on a dreadnaught like that assuming it is well armed and protected." Anderson bluntly stated. And I guess it does make sense, no point in poking at it just to have it turn around and destroy a newly made SR-1. I admit under less important circumstances I would be happy to see my old friend but now was no time for smiles and greetings, we needed to help our men and women dying on Eden Prime. " Shepard this is Nihlus, he is a Spectre here to help with the current mission we were sent on to retrieve a beacon from the dig site somewhere here on Eden Prime."

"Sir I think we could have gotten the beacon by ourselves, no offense to the Spectre but it seems like a real waste of the council's time, couldn't they have just trusted us to get the beacon. Or is there something else he is here for."

"You're smart Shepard, and very right, Nihlus is here to test your abilities and observe you on this mission and tell the council if you are ready to become a Spectre." Me, they were going to make me a Spectre. The sole reason I became an Alliance marine was to help protect people, not become a Spectre and bend over for the council to do their will, and clean up their messes. Spectre's have always been nothing but ignorant bullies to all other races besides the one they represent, albeit they are good soldiers, that's not to say that they are all bad, just not something I would have thought myself becoming. Humanity needs this though, first a Spectre position and then a seat on the council, and if The Alliance needs me to be a Spectre, then I will try.

"Sir, who am I to be taking with me on this mission aside from Nihlus of course."

"Alenko, and Jenkins should be more than up to the task, now get suited up you two."

As Nihlus left the Comm room, I needed to talk with Anderson in private. "Sir are you sure it's best to have a Spectre come along with us, and with me as the prime candidate for the Spectre position I don't think it would look well if I... If I got out of control and for him to see that, he would no doubt tell the council and humanity probably would not be in the running for a new Spectre for a while."

"Son, I have no doubt you'll pull through for us and become a Spectre, you've gotten a lot better controlling your anger, All that upsets you now is mentions of your past. After I saw the vid of you smack your fist on the desk and charge after Diesburg, I almost wish you would have hit him. The man doesn't get along well with any other Admiral's or any of the entire Alliance military now that I think about it." We both shared a laugh at the very unpopular Admiral Diesburg of Blista Station.

"Thanks Anderson, oh and it's good to see you again." I say, as I walk out of the Comm room leaving the man who acted more like a father to me than my own for quite a while. I need to prepare my team of Kaiden, and Jenkins for whatever that ship is and whoever we are fighting down there.

After gearing up we are ready to embark on our first mission, I feel will be the first in a long run of 'missions'. Nihlus was all ready to go, with his light phantom armor, and with Kaidan and Jenkins their standard issue light alliance armor. While I had my light N7 Alliance armor, damn, I need to get some better armor, this thing feels like it has the strength of a t-shirt. Maybe if I become a Spectre I'll get better armor, that's something to look forward to.

Jenkins notices Nihlus is coming with us and speaks up. "Nihlus you're coming with us." I'm still not sure if this kid is ready to come along on this mission with us, but who am I to call him kid, I'm only 27 years old and I'm usually treated with more respect than a lot of high ranking officers because of my holdout, if you could call it that, against the Batarians on Elysium. Bah, Jenkins will be fine.

"I move faster by myself." Said Nihlus as he jogged out and over the transport and straight through the twists and turns of the mountainous and forest land.

"Welp' better get to it then, you guys ready." I say, not knowing what else to say to my new crew mates. As I hear their simultaneous yes's I head out first and they soon follow. With a thump of our feet onto the ground I firstly notice some bloated floating monster. Which looked very repulsive, was this what killed our men? I see Jenkins and Kaidan have taken notice to the creatures and are eying them suspiciously. "Those things don't look like they can shoot, and I'm not sure why our soldiers couldn't fight them off, but we shouldn't underestimate them. Jenkins launch a grenade into the pack of them on the left and Kaidan and I will take the ones on the right. Sound good." Kaidan seemed like he was ready to go and get into battle but Jenkins just smiled. "Something funny marine." I say, rather upset at his turn in mood and mockery towards me.

"No sir, it's just... those guys are harmless, their called gasbags. They just sorta float around, they're only known to be around Eden Prime. No offense meant by it sir, but I grew up on Eden Prime and is why Anderson thought I should be brought along on this mission." Oh shit, now I feel bad for getting mad at the kid, I thought he was mocking my tactics to take down those 'gasbags'. But in reality was just having a good laugh at my ignorance.

I start to grin a bit at my near genocide of a poor defenseless species called gasbags. "Thanks for the knowledge Jenkins." As were making our way around the rocks, while our laughter is still dying down, Jenkins and I turn the corner of a rock and then a flick of red liquid is splashed onto my visor and under it hitting my face. I lift up my arm slowly to touch the red and wipe it off of my visor, bringing back memories of my days on Elysium. Before I can fully comprehend what just happened I can hear Kaidan shouting something to me, that just sounds like gibberish to me. As I look at the ground I can see the body of Jenkins riddled with bullets most of which were powerful enough to get through the armor and kill him. Coming back to reality I can hear Kaidan telling me to get down, but I don't listen and instead I am compelled to face this enemy as all of my better smarter instincts tell me to get down, I do not obey and I reach to pull out my Katana shotgun and hammer several rounds into the cluster of Batarians I see charging for me. While the Batarians are exploding upon impact of my shotgun blasts, which I found very strange considering they are filled with blood and not mechanical parts. When all the Batarians lay dead I drop my shotgun to examine the remains of the enemy. After blinking rapidly several times I see that the 'Batarians' I had just killed were in fact Geth drones. Was I hallucinating that badly that I would mistake flying drones for Batarians?

"Shepard. Are you okay?" I hear the voice of Kaidan call to me.

"Yes, I just uh. I just got a bit theatrical with it, I'm fine. Hey, where is Jenkins."

"He's dead, over here sir." damn it, I knew he was dead, but just hearing it out loud really pissed me off. It hurts knowing that I lost a marine under my command wither it was or wasn't my fault. But he signed up for it and I'd say I avenged him with my slaughtering the Geth drones. By the way, what the hell are the Geth doing so far outside the Perseus Veil.

"Leave a marker there for a transport from the Normandy to come by and pick him up, and message the Normandy to send someone for him, his parent deserves to get their son back and give him a proper burial, that is assuming he has parents." As we continued to press through the swampy lands of Eden Prime, and eliminating a few more Geth drones, we came across a marine fitted in pink and white Alliance armor. That girl from the vid, damn she made it out of that alive, we should probably go talk to her and find out why shes running. "Oh great, Geth, get behind these rocks Kaidan." With the Geth rapidly approaching the female marine who had the talent to get away from that massacre we saw on the transmission from a marine only a hour back on the Normandy, I couldn't let her be killed after getting that far. I would do anything I could to stop those bastard Geth. Switching to my Naginata sniper rifle, which was definitely not the best of it's line as it was only a mark VI, but it would have to get the job done. Aiming for the large flashlight on each of the Geth's head which there were most known for and made them a very easy target, I fired off two shots each ending their pursuit on the marine. Thinking my work was done I walked quickly down to the marine, before noticing the other Geth which had mounted a man on a pedestal of some kind and let it impale him with it's silver metal spike. Damn crazy robot. "Die you metal piece of shit!" and two more blasts into it's head.

A man that looked like he was posted on the spike for a while who was now blue and black began to charge after us once the spike had shrunk and he had climbed of it. Witch a single shot of her shotgun, the pink and white marine stood over the creature that was once a man. "Husk's, the Geth have been turning the miners and civilians into them to help them fight us. They used to do it to old planets they would conquer to act as a reserve force." This girl was smart, strong, and quick, all the makings of a member of my team.

"Would you like to come with us to secure a beacon that was left somewhere on a dig site, we were sent to look for it. You wouldn't happen to know where it is would you." I could see her smile through her helmet, and I knew she knew were it was.

"Yes Commander, I just left from that direction, all the Geth should be gone by now I'll take you to it."

Well all the Geth were not gone and it took us another ten minutes just to clear them out, and to nobodies surprise the beacon wasn't there. "Well, where else could they have taken the beacon Williams?"

"I'm not sure, but the dig researchers could have taken it somewhere safer, they should be just up this ridge here, that is if the Geth didn't get there first."

"I guess we better hurry then." After running up and around the ridge we had found a camp that looked to be unpopulated with the exception of the Husks still attached to their posts. Hmm, I wonder. "Guys, put a few shots into the Husks still on their posts as were going through the camp, and if they're still human looking just tough it out. Remember they have a huge metal spike impaled through the center of the stomach, their not coming back unless we wait for them to fully turn into a Husk." Obliging my orders they shot into the Husks a few times and watched them twitch and a few of their decayed limbs had fallen off, when we were sure they were all dead we headed into a locked door after we had heard the voices from inside and hacked into it. Raising our weapons once we were inside, we were faced with two fearful dig researchers.

"Don't shoot us please!" The woman shrieked.

"Don't worry we're not the enemy, you two are dig researchers right."

"Oh thank you so much, we thought you were one of those dreadful zombie like creatures, or the Geth. Um, yes we are dig researchers."

"The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain." Mumbled the researcher next to her.

"This guy isn't going to turn into a Husk is he. I really don't want to have to shoot him when he is still a human."

"Good God no! Manuel is just a bit, under the weather now, he just needs his meds. Don't hurt him. What is it exactly you wanted again sir." She sounded a bit fearful at my earlier words, not understanding that it was just a question and not a threat, but I guess I could understand why she is so afraid after seeing every one of her friends turn into Husks.

"I need to know where the beacon is, did you move it somewhere?"

"No, but I saw those geth having it transported through here and some Turian leading them telling them to take it onto the train and leave it by the platform on the edge of the mining facility." Nihlus? No it couldn't be he seemed like an okay enough sort for a Spectre, at least not the type to betray the council, from what the report read, he was a very respected member amongst the council. But if he did betray us, he would regret it, I thought he was supposed to feed us info throughout the mission by the way, that's what Anderson said.

"Shepard, I've found a small spaceport ahead me, I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."

"Okay, Nihlus, we'll meet up with you soon." There's no way I was going to tell him these survivors saw a Turian leading the Geth, that would give him the edge. And if this was a trap he was leading us into then we would be more ready for it. Leaving the researchers we came across the spaceport he had mentioned which was again crawling with Geth and Husks, after taking a few of them down, I had Kaidan head towards the right side of the port, where a few of the Geth were trying to break into earlier but were cut down by Kaidan's Pistol. While Ashley and I went up to the main platform where a red and black armored Turian lie dead.

Nihlus? Wait, if Nihlus wasn't the Turian they saw then who was it. Some crates bumping against each other alarmed me and Ashley, as we turned our guns on them. "Come out now, with your hands up and weapons gone." I stated hoping It wasn't whatever had killed Nihlus, considering he was a trained Turian Spectre and was very experienced.

"Don't shoot please." Came the voice of a cowardly dock worker. "Wait, you're not that other Turian."

"Other Turian, you mean you saw this other Turian, what he look like and what happened to him." Pointing at Nihlus, I wanted to know what had happened and find that beacon fast.

"Yes, he killed the other Turian, He called him Saren, said he was another Spectre. And after he told some of the Geth to take him to the beacon, they went that way." He said, pointing towards a train track.

"Thanks, and next time, show a little backbone. You might have had a chance to save Nihlus but instead cowered behind some crates. Soldier or no, you could have made a difference." Leaving the man looking depressed and ashamed of himself, and Ashley smiling a bit at the way I called out his cowardice. We made our way for the train, after grouping up with Kaidan, who had found some farmers and sent them back to safety.

The train ride was a long one, after having to fight several Geth, and a big red one that charged straight for us on the train. We had made our way off and had found what looked like bomb, having Kaidan disarm it, we maneuvered through the platform filled with Geth and bombs, disarming each as we got to them, leading us to a ridge on the side of the mountain with what I assumed was the beacon. When we had got to it, I knew it was the beacon. I had contacted Joker telling him to send a transport to come pick us up now that the beacon was found and secured.

A rather curious Ashley had walked up to the beacon examining it and was quickly lifted up into the air silently, and looked to be in pain. I'm not letting anyone else die this close to the end of the mission. Running past Kaidan, and using all my strength to pry her from the beacons grasp, I succeeded and had thrown her off to the side, but had taken her place at being pulled in front of the beacon. It didn't hurt that bad, well my body didn't but my mid was bouncing about in every direction, it felt like my brain was being stepped on by a Krogan, and the images that would flash in my mind were horrific. They all depicted death, and places I had never seen before. After a few seconds of it, I had blacked out.

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Thank you for reading, and please review telling me what you think of it, thanks.


	3. The Citadel

**Para-Cord**: I appreciate the feedback, as this is my first story, and I will distinguish Shepard's thoughts from the other text. Also I understand I do have trouble with grammar as far as commas or run on sentences go. I'll try to fix these things as I understand they can make the story a bit confusing to read.

**Kill-Phil**: Yeah, I only just noticed the awkward third person beginning paragraph, it was not intended and I'll probably go back to change it back to first person. Making Shepard angry was a big part to my story, I thought it would distinguish it more considering I had never seen a fanfic that made him angry and it will play a big part in my story.

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Mass Effect: A new Life

III

I woke slowly to see the face of the doctor who I still had yet to learn the name of and Ashley dressed in a crew uniform, _hmm I thought she would be a blond, guess I was wrong._

"You had us worried there Shepard, how are you feeling?"

"Well my head hurts and that's really about it, other than feeling exhausted. How long was I out."

"About 15 hours. Ashley and Kaidan had to carry you back into the transport. It's a good thing you saved Ashley, Shepard. We know now you're okay but it could have turned out different for her. We are trying to find out what happened with the beacon, some of the Alliance's top men are working on it. Admiral Diesburg and a few researchers are having the remains transported to Blista Station to work on it." _Yeah no doubt something happened, I was lifted up a good five feat in the air and started to have my brain probed. _"If you're feeling up to it Commander, Admiral Anderson would like to speak with you."

"Yes I'm feeling well enough, thank you doctor..."

"Chakwas. Commander." She nodded and left me alone in the med bay with Ashley. _She was a very attractive woman, Ashley that is, not that I had any idea of starting a relationship, that is if I could hold it. All of my relationships tend to end before it can get serious, I think it's got something to do with my temper, if someone insults, looks at provocatively, or upsets her, I tend to start yelling or threatening the perpetrator. You would think standing up for your date would make them like you more, but when I do it, they get upset and break off our relationship. Ashley seemed to like the way I yelled at that worker back on Eden Prime, I guess I could see if she's into me. No one would find out right, no, I can't get attached to anyone, not now that I'm a high ranking Alliance soldier._

"Hey Commander, I just thought I'd come by to see if you were okay, and to... thank you for saving me."

"I didn't save you Ashley, it didn't kill me and you would have been fine."

"Don't be modest Commander, you're stronger than me, I could have died." _There's no point arguing with her, I should just let her thank me. _I gave her a nod and smile. "Well I'll be in the mess if you want to come by and talk, you know where to find me."

"I'd like that, but right now I need to go see what it was Anderson wanted." getting up and moving through the mess hall and up to the Comm Room where Anderson was usually located at. "Anderson, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, just wanted to get the story from you, although I did get Kaidan and Ashley's reports. By the way, Ashley asked if she could stay on as part of the crew, I accepted. I hope that is okay with you."

"Sure, why wouldn't it be."

"No reason really, it's just she does harbor a... prejudice for a lot of... well all other species, and I know how you feel about that." _It's true, I had a few alien friends throughout my life, and have punched a few racist Alliance soldiers for spouting hateful garbage about any species that wasn't human._

"I'll be fine Captain." _I've never punched a girl before, well there was this squeaky voiced Volus, but I'm not sure if it was male or female. But as long as she's not as bad as the marines I've talked to then we'll get along._

"Well I'm glad to hear that, anyway what happened on that mission Shepard."

"We landed a ways away from the beacon's location, and proceeded to a path cluttered with rocks. That's where we lost Jenkins. Kaidan and I pressed through some trees and found Ashley being attacked by some Geth, and we also had to fight off some of these Husks. I believe the Geth used them before on other planets, but I had never heard of them. Ashley told us the location of the beacon, of course it wasn't there, and we had to go to a researcher camp to find it. They told us they saw a Turian leading the Geth, I suspected Nihlus at first, but it's not him obviously. We found Nihlus dead and a dock worker who told us another Turian named Saren. Then we wen."

"Wait, Saren. Hmm, if Saren has turned rouge this will be more difficult than I thought."

"Sir, you know this Saren guy?"

"Yes, he's a Spectre, and a damn good one at that."

"The council needs to know about this, if a Spectre is working with the Geth, he could use it as an army for the Turians."

"I fear he would use them to fight us, humanity, Saren has an extreme hatred for humans. He fears we're growing to quickly and getting stronger, which he is right about, but we can not allow him to continue what ever he is planning. The Geth must be working with him for a reason, but I don't know why, and I need you to find out. We'll take this to the council."

"And sir. I also had a vision when the beacon knocked me out, It looked like the Geth or something killing all other life, I fear this is part of Saren's plan."

"Very well, I don't think it's best to tell them this though, only as a last resort. We don't want them thinking we're crazy, although I do believe you Shepard."

"I understand sir." We made ready to head for the Citadel and present our case to the council.

In a large dark room that appeared to be a throne room, or the command deck of a ship, sat a white Turian, in the best armor a Spectre could get his hands on. He was listening to a report from a rather old looking Asari, looking very frustrated. "Who is he!" yelled the Turian, now storming at the Matriarch reaching for her throat, while she just stood there and didn't even flinch. The blue eyed Turian stared her in the eyes as she answered.

"His name is Shepard, Commander John Shepard, an N7 officer. Apparently he is heading for the council to plead his case that you are a traitor to the council."

"How does he know it was me, he never even saw me!"

"The reports we were given tell us a dock worker witnessed you kill Nihlus. They will probably use him to testify against you."

"Bah! A human dock worker. Hardly a credible source. I doubt he will be able to get anything on us, just so long as that suit rat that has those vids of us is killed by fist. Has he gotten the assassins hired yet?"

"No, he is trying to find someone he can trust to do it."

"Damn that idiot! He needs to kill her quickly, I can't lose the perks of being a Spectre, and have the council looking for me if it gets out I betrayed them! Why can't we just have the shadow broker send someone already, instead of letting him have Fist deal with it."

"He wants Fist to handle it."

"Fine." He sighed for a long time. "Has our agent done anything useful for us in the past couple of days?"

"Yes, he got the beacon pieces back to his station, and could transport them here if you wanted."

"I don't need the beacon I'm done with it, I have all the information I need, I just need to tie up loose ends now. And that Shepard, has enough information to take me down, that is if he could, the human is too weak and naive. How close is he to Shepard? Could we have him assassinate Shepard?"

"I'm afraid he has already talked about it, and says he won't take the risk."

"Has Sovereign finished indoctrinating the Admiral and his men yet?"

"His men were easy to indoctrinate but he still stands strong, it appears he wants to take Shepard down without even being indoctrinated, he must really hate the man. I suspect after another week he should be fully indoctrinated, and ready to do your bidding."

"Good, once the time comes, we will use him to wreak havoc from within the Alliance, and tear them apart from the inside. That should prepare us for the invasion of the pity human forces, after we take the Citadel that is."

* * *

When we had landed on a wing of the Citadel, we were taken to Ambassador Udina's room, where we found him arguing with a transmission from the Council. He continued to shout even once he saw us enter, not hiding his anger for the subject. "This is an outrage! If it was a Turian colony that was attacked, the Council would immediately go to war with the Geth."

"The Turians don't found colonies on the edge of the Terminus System, Ambassador." Stated the Asari councilor.

"You must be hunting Saren then, he is the reason our colony was attacked! He is a traitor to you and all of the other races!"

"Saren's guilt is being determined. In the mean time you will have to stay here, at least until we can allow a case to be opened. Goodbye Ambassador." The Turian councilor left him with that, and the rest ended transmission.

Turning towards us, remembering we were here, he said. "Captain, I see you brought half of the Normandy's crew with you."

"Just the ground team from the mission on Eden Prime."

"Very well, I trust your reports are accurate."

"Yes, we will be ready to begin our case, once the Council is ready to see us."

"Good, that bastard Saren needs to be stopped."

"Don't worry sir, we'll catch that asshole before he can touch another human colony." I said, butting into their conversation.

"Very good Shepard, just don't let your passion for the subject get the better of you when we try you for Spectre, and when we begin our case against Saren." The old ambassador said, in his thick Irish accent. "In the mean time, I need to speak with you Captain, and I'm trusting you three to stay out of trouble. We wouldn't want Shepard assaulting a C-Sec officer, because he hurt his feelings, that would really hurt our chances of getting onto the council." I clenched my fists tight, doing everything I could to resist punching him.

"Shepard." Said Anderson, nearly shouting it, to get my attention. Anderson was trying to save Udina, and probably saving my job as well. "Maybe you should leave us to talk in private, some leave on the Citadel should do you wonders, go get a drink, have some fun." He smiled at me, ushering me to leave, the man was like a father to me, so I listened. I slowly started to relax as I left Udina and Anderson behind to talk, walking away with Kaidan and Ashley. _Anderson was right, I need to have some fun. I'll probably go to the bar, I haven't had a drink in months._

* * *

Remember to leave a review as it helps me become a better writer, thank you all for reading.


	4. Garrus

Mass Effect: A new Life

IV

I spent the majority of my leave time wandering around the Citadel, learning about many of the different races of aliens on the Citadel, talking to the consort about helping her with some type of blackmail she was dealing with, and talking with Ashley or Kaidan at the bar. Many of those races I had only ever heard of before, and seeing them was weird, like the Drell who were few in numbers, and these pink floating octopus things called Hanar. I had even broken up a fight between one of the Hanar and a C-Sec officer. The Consort I talked to was a deep blue colored Asari, who pleaded for my help in getting her ex-lover to retract what he had said about her, sullying her name, I had done all this for her and had yet to go back and tell her I was done. I was about to return to her when Ashley and Kaidan came to me, telling me that Anderson and Udina were ready for our meeting with the Council.

Marching up what felt like a hundred stairs, Ashley had a comment about the Council. "You think all these stairs are supposed to be a symbol of how important they believe themselves?"

"Probably, but it also gives them a advantage in the event they were under siege." Kaidan argued Ashley's point.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense, I still think they're too vain."

I had nearly made it to Anderson and Udina, when I saw a light green Turian with blue face paint arguing with a darker colored Turian with darker face paint. "Damn it Pallin, you have to buy me more time, Saren is hiding something. Just stall the Council." _This guy hates Saren too, maybe he could be of use to us._

"Stall the Council, you're crazy Garrus, get back to your work, and drop this Saren thing." The Turian, Pallin, left Garrus alone, marching in the other direction.

"Hey, you're after Saren too?"

"Oh, Commander, yes, I was the C-Sec officer in charge of investigating him. I believe there is something up with him, I just need more evidence to bring it up with the Council."

"What evidence do you have exactly?"

"Well... None really, I just don't trust him." _Well that doesn't help my case, but I guess he could still help us._

"Fine then, I guess I better get up there and start an argument."

"Goodbye Commander, maybe they'll listen to you."

Pressing through the small crowds, I made my way to Anderson. "Shepard, hurry, the hearing has already started." I notice there is a huge red holo of a Turian, Saren most likely. The three councilors are arguing with Udina.

"The Geth attack is a matter of some concern, but it doesn't give reason to suspect Saren was behind it." Says the Asari councilor.

"The investigation by C-Sec gave no evidence to suspect Saren of treason." Says the Turian councilor now.

"An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood." _I doubt they will care about that, as it was a human dockworker, and not a high ranking council species member._

And now it was the Salarian's turn. "Yes, we have read the reports of Eden Prime, the ramblings of a traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling evidence."

Now came the robotic like voice of Saren. "I resent these accusations, Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and friend."

"That only helped you catch him off guard!" I was thinking the same thing as Anderson had just stated.

"Captain Anderson? You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false accusations against me." _Wait a minute, how does Saren know Anderson. I'll have to ask him later, hopefully it's not too personal. _"And this must be your protégé. Commander Shepard, the one who let the beacon get destroyed." _Damn him, he's just trying to make me look bad now, so I won't get the Spectre position._

_ Now it's my turn. _"Hey, that mission was top secret, how exactly do you know about it."

He answered confident and unhindered. "When Nihlus died, his files passed down to me, and I read the reports, I was unimpressed." _Damn it. _"But what can you expect, from a human?"

"Saren hates humans, that was his motive for helping the Geth."

"Your species needs to learn it's place Shepard, you aren't ready to join the Council, let alone the Spectres!" The looks I got from the council said that they almost agreed with him, _I can't let this asshole do this to us. _I learned a few things from Anderson about Saren, I really don't like bringing up the past about others, but this guy was really pissing me off. _Here goes nothing, lets piss him of now._

"Hey asshole! We both now the only reason you are so fond of ruining humans now, is because you couldn't do it during the First Contact War!" Yes apparently Saren had served the Turian Hierarchy during the war, and lost a great many battles. "I heard you failed to hold the lines against us weak humans, during the siege of Shanxi, I heard you let your brother die. You took our planet and then lost it a few days later, you and the other Turians ran. You coward." _Fingers crossed, and praying to God this works._

"You piece of shit!" _Wow, maybe I went too far. _"You ignorant human bastards. We had you done in, but that shit surprise attack by your second fleet caught us off guard, we were repairing and helping our wounded from previous battles. We had taken your planet with ease, we didn't have to do a thing but wait, wait until that coward of a general, Williams surrendered to us." _Oh shit, I forgot about that, I hope Ashley keeps her cool before we start shooting down that big red holo of Saren._

"My grandfather was out maned, out gunned, and out of time. He saved that colony from starvation by giving into the Turians, and it payed off, considering the Alliance came back with the Second Fleet and blew your boney asses back to the Citadel." _Well, at least she has a point._

_ "_Everyone, shut up!" I had completely forgot the Council was right there watching us fight, but the Asari councilor had no time for our childish games it seemed. "You are all fighting like children. I don't know what type of man you are Shepard, but I do know you Saren, your acting completely irrational. This hearing isn't about past wars, and grudges. Neither is it about Shepard's admission into the Spectres Saren."

_Now it's time to apologize and, be the bigger man, that will prove my worth and devotion to the councils decisions. _"I'm sorry councilors, I let my anger get the best of me, I retract what I said about you Saren, it was out of line." I gave a small smile, one I knew Saren could see.

"Thank you Shepard." Said the Asari councilor, now looking at Saren, apparently waiting for his apology. _Ha, this is too good._

But Saren gave no apology. "Will this be all councilors. I have matters to attend to." Saren, who now looked to be steaming with anger, stared angrily at me. I knew if he could he would kill me, but I doubt he could last a three minute battle against me. I knew we had lost the trial, but we definitely sullied Saren's relation with the Council. The councilors looked back and forth at each other, shaking their heads, they had decided.

"We find no evidence to support your case against Saren. If you find more evidence to support your claim, you can reopen your trail later. Until then, this trail is over." Saren turned out of view from the holo without another word. We had to turn and leave, back to our rooms we were allowed to stay in, until we could get back to the Normandy.

"What the hell was that, you idiot!" Udina questioned, just as mad as Saren had been. "You blew the trial, we could have had him, if you would have just held your tongue. If you weren't our only chance of getting into the Spectres, then I would have your job!"

"Don't! Call me, an idiot. I was trying to piss him off, and it worked. The council needed to see what he is really like, I just thought he would actually threaten to kill me. In fact I wish he had, that wouldn't have been actual evidence against him, but it's pretty hard to get rid of that reputation in which case we don't get him for treason. He will at least have lost relations with the councilors."

"Fine, I really hope you know what your doing. Anderson, I need to discuss something with you, follow me to my office."

"Anderson, wait. How is it you know Saren?"

He gave a long sigh, as if he knew I was going to ask him this. "We were on a mission a few years back, it went bad, real bad. We shouldn't talk about this here, but I know what type of person he is, and he has to be stopped. If not, if his plan succeeds, then he will destroy any human colony he can get to."

"So, what do we do now?"

"We, aren't going to do anything Shepard. I need you and your 'team' to find more evidence on Saren." Says Udina. _What an ass, he could at least pretend to help us somehow, but instead he pushes it all off on me._

"What about that Turian, Garrus, he seemed to be close to finding something on Saren." _Finally something from Kaidan, I almost forgot he was here._

"I have a contact in C-Sec, you could talk to him, his name his Harkin. Use Harkin to find Garrus, he is usually in the bar." _Great, Udina is giving us a drunk to help us._

"Exactly, he is usually in the bar, the man is a drunk. I won't waste my time on him."

"You won't have to, Shepard can talk to him."

"Wait, you can't just cut Anderson out of this investigation."

"No, he's right Shepard, Saren and I are to close. We have to much history, it's best if you do this without me."

"Alright, I'll go talk to Harkin then, drunk or not, he could be of use."

"Very well Shepard, just remember, Saren is dangerous. He will do anything to keep his Spectre status for as long as possible, that includes killing all those that are a threat to that, like us." _I'd like to know more about Saren and Anderson, but Anderson doesn't want to talk about it now, so I'll respect that._

"Okay sir, Come on guys, lets go find Garrus." Anderson turned to go to Udina's office, and we headed out to find Harkin, and then Garrus. As we were leaving I saw a Salarian, messing with the grasshopper-spider things, known as the keepers. I payed no mind to him, because spiders creep me the hell out, even insects in general. _Look at me, the mighty Commander Shepard, afraid of a little grasshopper. Damn, I need to toughen up, what will people say when they see John Shepard run from a keeper. I need to face my fears, but maybe another time, right now we need to get to Garrus._

While we were on the elevator, it was a slow ride down to Chora's Den, where Harkin was at. So we might as well as talk a bit. "Ashley, I'm sorry about that back there. I completely forgot about General Williams, I hope that bastard Saren didn't upset you to much."

"No, it's fine Commander, I knew what you were trying to do, and tried my best to upset Saren. I think it worked, but it did upset me. Not that it was your fault, you didn't know I was related to him, and that's okay. It seems that's all I'll ever be remembered for, is being the granddaughter of the famous General Williams, the man that lost a colony to the Turians."

"Don't say that Ashley, you're a great Alliance soldier and so was your grandfather, he just gave up to quickly." Came Kaidan's voice, trying to make Ashley feel better, and maybe flirting a bit. _Yeah, Kaidan and Ashley would make a good pair, not sure how, but I think they would. That doesn't mean anything will happen between them, but it seems like he likes her. He was eying her all throughout the trial, I noticed it as I turned to leave, and I'm sure he was watching her long before that._

"Yes, well we're off now, lets go find Harkin." We walked by Avina, the Citadel holo tourist guide, telling some Turian tourist, dressed in a black and gray armor, about all of the apartment blocks, and their occupants. Which to me, seemed a bit intrusive and unsafe, but I payed no mind to it and continued to Chora's Den.

Once we had arrived, I looked around a bit for the man named Harkin, but instead saw two Krogan staring deep into each others eyes, as if they were about to either start some weird Krogan mating ritual, or kill each other. Probably the later.

"This is Fists only chance, if he's smart he'll take it." Said the red Krogan with a large clawed scar running down his face.

"He's not coming out Wrex, end of story." Said the other Krogan, looking somewhat afraid.

"The story is just beginning." The larger scarred Krogan turned, and left our way. "Out of my way humans, I have no quarrel with you." I obliged the large Krogan, and stepped back.

"That was weird. Anyway I think I see Harkin, getting drunk by that table." I said hoping to finish, and leave this bar as quick as possible, before that Krogan comes back and kills everyone to get to this 'Fist' guy. "Hey, are you Harkin?"

"Maybe, what's it to you."

"I need to know where I could find a Turian named Garrus."

"Oh, Garrus eh, I'll tell you, but first you have to tell me. Did Anderson tell you his big secret, that is why you're here right, Anderson sent you."

"If you say a single thing, against Anderson, or insult him, I might just consider smashing your face into that drink you got there." I felt slightly angry that he was either trying to insult or turn me against Anderson.

"Fine, fine, Garrus was sniffing around doctor Michel's Med Clinic a while ago. He might still be there."

"Goodbye." I say leaving him to his drinking, wishing I could have smashed the drunks bottle into his skull for attempting to insult the Captain.

We made our way out of the bar, and over to the Med Clinic on the far side of the Wards. Where we had found Doctor Michel being harassed by some thugs. _Oh no you don't, you bunch of bastards. _I moved to draw my gun on the men, one of which had taken Michel hostage. "Let her go, and I won't throw you out that window when I capture you." I noticed Garrus who was hiding behind a small wall, getting ready to take a shot. So, I tried to get him one. I moved a bit to the right, just enough so that the thug would turn to just the right angle and... Crack! Garrus' sniper rifle took the thug out, while myself, Kaidan, and Ashley killed the other two. When Michel was free of the thug's grasp, she ran for the wall Garrus was at. "It's okay doctor, we took care of the thugs." I said, urging her to stand up.

"Nice job Shepard, you came in just as I needed a shot, and you got me one."

"I knew what you were doing, you did good Garrus, and I'm glad no one got hurt. Michel, who were these guys? Do you know who they work for, and what were they asking you?" She let out a sigh, like she didn't want to tell us, but knew she had to. "Michel, whatever it is, we can protect you from them, just tell us."

"They work for Fist, they were asking about the Quarian that I treated, and where they could find her. She had been shot, so I helped her."

"A Quarian? Why is this Quarian so important to them?"

"The Quarian told me she was carrying sensitive information about Saren, the Spectre. She said this information could get Saren imprisoned, and his Spectre status erased. She said she was going to try to sell it to the Shadow Broker, for a safe place to hide and for enough money to take back as a pilgrimage gift."

"Where is this Quarian now?"

"I put her in contact with Fist, an agent of the Shadow Broker."

Garrus spoke up with his information. "Yes, but now Fist works for Saren, and the Shadow Broker isn't too happy about that. Saren was apparently getting Fist to ask the Shadow Broker for favors, favors that were really for Saren, but the Shadow Broker didn't know that at the time. Now the Broker knows and has been after Fist for a while, hence why it would be so hard to get to Fist."

"Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker, that's really stupid. Saren must have made him quite the offer."

"That Quarian must have something pretty important, enough information to bust Saren. We better get to her first, before she... well before she gets killed."

"Sounds good Garrus, I take it that means you're coming with us."

"I would like to Shepard, if I could bring Saren down, it would make my day."

"Good, welcome to the team Garrus, although I think it will take longer than a day to bag Saren."

* * *

Thank you for reading, please review telling me what I need to improve on, it does help me get better.


	5. Wrex and Tali

Mass Effect: A new Life

V

We had just left the clinic, Garrus, Ashley, and I that is. I only ever liked taking two other people with me on missions, unless the job absolutely couldn't be done with only two, ever since Elysium, I always thought it best to travel in smaller groups, you move quicker and can slip past enemies easier. And if only two of us were coming, I had to leave Kaidan out, as he is only trained in pistols, and not the best fighter. And we were now only a bridge away from Fist's bar, after we made our war past a red alleyway. We entered a second alleyway with two bridges, I got a weird feeling, the one where it feels like someone is standing right behind you, but now it just felt like there was someone other than us in this alley.

"Wait, everyone hold up." I heard a noise, it came from behind a barrier on the other side of the bridge. I was right of course, two assassins, or guards to Fist's bar were hiding behind the barrier, and had just popped up as if they heard my voice, they raised their guns ready to fire, and I reacted. "Everyone down!" We ducked behind the barriers on our side. Fist's assassins had some pretty good gear, expensive rifles, and heavy black armor. We all apparently had the same idea to blind fire from behind our barriers, missing entirely, but forcing the assassins to retreat back into the bar, damn, now they'll tell the rest of Fist's men we're here. I guess they already know anyway, with all the shooting just outside their bar. "Come on, slowly, lets move up to the doors."

Garrus and Ashley approached the left side of the doors that led to the bar, and I took the right, we all had nodded to each other, getting ready to breach and face how ever many waited for us on the other side. We kicked the doors open and hid back to our side of the doors, just in time as we were greeted with a barrage of gunfire. Most of the guards seemed to be hiding behind the desks in the center of the bar, where the bartender would be and were the drinks were. And one was on top of the bar roofing, where there was usually a dancer, but now all there was, was the single pole that held the top above the bartender. _Wait, is it possible to take that roof down, and crush the men hiding in the bar, Garrus should know he's been on the Citadel a lot longer than me, and has probably been down here before_. "Garrus, you think it's possible to break that roof above the bar with a grenade, to bring it down?

"Sure, it might take two or three though, that pole holding it up is about four inches thick."

"You heard him Ashley, all three of our grenades. Ready." I received simultaneous nods from my squad, as we all took a grenade from our belt. If this works, then we can take out over half of Fist's men, by crushing them under their own bar. "Three, two, throw!" The grenades all landed perfectly on top of the bars roofing. And in a few seconds, they all detonated, shaking the roof above the bar, the roof landed in the circular bar area, I could hear it crush the men hiding under it. I assumed it was their bones cracking and breaking under the weight of the platform, but it could have been their armor and guns, in fact, I hope it was their armor. That was too gruesome a death. _Oh, knock it off Shepard, war isn't fair, they should have been smarter and not hid under a platform that could be broken that easily._ In fact the blast sent debris all over the bar, I even saw a that Krogan bouncer from earlier get impaled by a shred of metal from the pole that held the platform up. I'm glad he went down in the blast, because he looked like he would have been a pain to fight.

"Alright, I think we got them all? Move in, but be careful." We made our way over the many chunks of metal and broken glass from the drinks that were crushed earlier, we also saw a few bodies, some dead others dying. It didn't feel right leaving them to die a slow death, so I'll give them a quick one, unless Garrus needs them for C-Sec stuff. "Garrus, do you need any prisoners, for C-Sec stuff?" Garrus seemed to still be in awe of the mass killing we had just caused, he didn't give me a verbal answer, just shaking his head. I think he knew what I was going to do next, because he raised his gun to help. "Garrus, you don't have to, I can take care of them."

"It's okay Shepard, let's do this quickly, and then find Fist." We all were ready to put a single round into the heads of the dying, most of them couldn't say anything, probably from the extreme pain they were going through. A few looked at me with a sorrow in their eyes, I'm not sure if that meant they wanted me to spare them, or put them out of their misery. Garrus and Ashley didn't shoot yet, they must have been waiting for me. _I can't go through with this, not again, I won't execute them. _"I'm sorry guys, I can't, you do it, I'll go look for Fist's room." I inhaled deeply, and lowered my gun and exhaled. I walked away quickly, so they couldn't start up a conversation asking me why I can't kill them. _This doesn't make me weak does it? No, I can still fight an enemy, just so long as they're fighting back. _Garrus and Ashley didn't say anything, but I could feel their eyes burning through the back of my head. I heard several loud cracks of their guns, knowing the dead was done. They came walking back to me, not saying anything else, knowing that I didn't want them to. "Alright lets find Fist." They nodded and we came to the door where the bouncer usually guarded.

"I guess he'd been in there right?" Ashley said, breaking the silence.

"Most likely, come on, but be careful, we don't know how many more guards he has." We opened the doors, to come face to face with two guards, humans. Our guns were up before theirs, and they knew they were beat. "You two, drop the guns." They dropped their guns before I could even finish my sentence, I'm not sure if it's because they saw all the rubble behind us and the dead bodies and got scared, or because they were simply giving up.

"Don't shoot us please! We were just leaving, we aren't going to die for that bastard Fist." They were basically just kids, and I only noticed it when they dropped their guns. It's funny, when someone has a gun, it's like it ages them, and makes them look stronger, but when they drop it the real person comes out, for these guys, the cowards came out. But these guys are Fist's men, probably criminals.

"Garrus, what do you want us to do with them, they might be criminals."

"No, we just signed on a few days ago as Fist's guards, we haven't done anything against the law. Please just let us go." Garrus gave me a nod, and I moved out of the way to let them go. "Thank you sir, here, this is the pass code to get into Fist's room."

"Well, that worked in our favor. Garrus, Ashley, you guys ready."

"Yes Commander, lets get Fist, and find that Quarian with the info on Saren." Said Ashley, sounding grateful to finally be ending this mission.

"Ready as well Commander, I've wanted to bring this guy down since he first came up as a crime boss. I think I'll take him in to C-Sec and they can have him, should get me a promotion, or pay raise. This guy may just be a tool of Saren and the Shadow Broker, but he is still an organized crime leader, and it'll be good to bring him down."

"And on that note, lets go get him." we entered the pass code that the two guards had given us from earlier, it worked fine, I almost expected them to give us a fake or something to trap us, but it would appear they were genuinely done with Fist. Now if only I could convince the Geth to stop following Saren, and put down their guns. The door opened swiftly, and we were met with what looked like Fist's last guard holding a assault rifle pointed to the ground, and standing relaxed as if he thought we would already be dead. Maybe they thought we went out in the blast from our grenades. He became aware of our presence, just before he was blasted away by Garrus' shotgun, leaving a bloody mess on the floor we looked to the left to see Fist. He was sitting down behind his desk and had just stood up with a pistol, probably hiden under his desk and started firing at us. He had the help of two defense turrets. We hid back behind the door out of the line of sight of the turrets and Fist. "Damn, we can't even go peek our heads in without getting blasted by those turrets."

"And if we blind fire like last time, we could get our arms chopped off." Added Garrus. Looks like it's time for my engineering skill to come back into play.

"Guys, just wait it out, I'm going to hack the turrets, once their down move in and destroy them, don't kill Fist, we need him alive to tell us where the Quarian is." Luckily Fist couldn't hear me say that because the turrets were too busy firing away at where we used to stand at. I brought up my Omni-tool program that allowed me to turn off remote electronics in a 20 meter vicinity. It didn't take long until I had finished, I was always very good with hacking and anything to do with tech in general, but I'll always be a better soldier than anything else. "Finished!" The turrets stopped firing and I heard a loud 'damn' from Fist, knowing I had hacked his turrets. Garrus and Ashley moved in, Garrus destroyed one turret and Ashley the other, once the turrets were destroyed they left a smoke and bright spark escape them. We redirected our attention to Fist, who was cowering behind his desk, no longer having the aid of his remote turrets.

"Come on out Fist, you don't want to die with your armor full of piss do you, I can smell it from over here, get up and drop the gun." I tried persuading him, and it worked, he slowly got up with no weapon in hand. "Where's the Quarian?"

"Wait, you aren't the Broker's men? I thought you were here to kill me."

"Nope, we're just here to find the Quarian. Is she still alive? Where is she? Answer me and the worst you'll get is being imprisoned with C-Sec."

"Wait, you're C-Sec? Ha, I'm not going to tell you unless you let me go, you won't kill me, if I tell you I go to prison, and if I don't I go to prison." I'm not going to play games with this guy, I need to save that Quarian, get her info, give it to the council, and then find Saren. I'm not going to let this guy put the entire galaxy into ruin just because he doesn't want to go to prison. I drew my pistol and put away my assault rifle, I saw him look at me with a bit of fear, but he was still confident I wasn't going to do anything, clearly he doesn't know what I'm like. "You think that threatening me will do anything, you can't hurt me, you're C-Sec. I let him finish talking before I smiled at him, pointed my gun to his knee and fired. "Aw, son of a bitch!" He grabbed for his knee, as if holding it would make it feel better, it was bleeding slowly, I knew I hit through to his bones.

"I don't have time to play games, where is she!" Garrus, and Ashley seemed to edge themselves away from me, I hope this isn't actually scaring them, I only mean to get the location from this guy.

"Y... y... you shot me. You shot me."

"Yes, and I can shoot you again, unless you tell me where she is."

"I don't remember!" He said, crying. He was now sitting on the floor holding his knee, still crying towards the floor. This blubbering idiot needs to tell me now, before he passes out from the blood loss.

"Hey buddy, I want to help you get out of this alive, I really do." Garrus started in. Good guy, bad guy, it sounds like. Good, maybe this will work, Garrus is pretty smart. "But you need to tell us where the Quarian is, if not, the Commander here is going to start getting angry." Fist looked at Garrus when he was talking, and then back at me when Garrus said 'start getting angry'. I gave him a look with my eyes that I knew made me look like a psychopath, I bugged my eyes out, and smiled a little, while tilting my head.

"Um... I remember! Saren wanted me to set up a meeting with her, she is going to be in the alleyway between here and the wards." He said, looking at Garrus, and started to smile, because this just saved him from being brutally murdered by me, supposedly. I wouldn't really kill the guy, I just wanted to get her location from him. "If you go now, you can make it in time." Garrus gave me a nod, saying he believed him.

"Alright, you're still coming with us, Garrus keep him up, support his other leg." We made our way past the many bodies scattered on the floor of the bar. We had really left a massacre behind us, Fist was nearly passing out, but he still retained enough of his consciousness to see all of his dead bodyguards. He bobbed his head up and down, he looked like he was drunk, but really he was just going to pass out. "Stay awake Fist, we need to make sure you're telling the truth."

"I'm.. I'm awake. Hey... you're kinda pretty, you want to go back to my office and show me a good time girly." I assumed he was talking to Ashley, but when I looked over to him, being supported by Garrus, I realized Ashley was to my right, and Garrus to the left. He was looking up at Garrus, smiling.

"Garrus, I think he likes you." I said to Garrus smiling.

"Yeah, I could never really tell you're species sexes apart. So I don't really blame him for thinking you're a woman." I looked at Ashley a more threatening look than I gave Fist a few minutes ago when I shot him. I shook my head, making sure she knew I wouldn't tolerate her xenophobic behavior. Garrus just smiled towards her, obviously not knowing it was an insult, or of her racist beliefs.

"Oh, Garrus, that's a pretty name. You wanna leave those two and I'll show you what it's like to be with a human."

"Oh, no thanks, I locked up a few Turians a while back, I'm sure they'll love to show you what it's like to be with a Turian." I laughed a Garrus' joke, and thought to myself, it might not be a joke, ouch. Fist seemed to come back to reality at Garrus' statement, and the fear was back in his eyes.

"Oh, no please, give me a private cell, isn't shooting me in the leg enough torture."

"Yeah Garrus, give him a break." Just as I we turned the corner and had seen the bridges we crossed earlier, we heard a loud bang from a sniper rifle. Fist was hit directly in the head, ending our conversation, he feel back and off of Garrus' arms to the floor. "Down!"

"It must be the Broker's assassins, they must have found Fist's hideout destroyed and been waiting for us to come out." Damn, we needed Fist, in case he was lying about the Quarian's whereabouts. And now came the voice of a familiar Krogan, booming loudly.

"I only wanted to kill Fist, I see you aren't his men, he was my bounty. You can leave, or you can fight me. Your choice." Wait, that was the Krogan we saw earlier, the one that asked for Fist, at his bar. What was his name.

"Wrex? Is that you?" Garrus said, revealing to me his name.

"Oh, it's you, that C-Sec detective guy. Who are the others with you?"

"It's Commander Shepard, and an Alliance soldier Ashley Williams." Hopefully Wrex was serious about letting us go.

"Wrex we don't care about Fist, I almost murdered him myself earlier." _Maybe this Wrex could be of use to us later, we could always use a Krogan, but there are a little unstable._ "We are looking for a Quarian, Fist said she was waiting in a red alleyway. Did you see her when you came by?" Wrex was quiet for a while, as if he was thinking.

"Yeah, I did. She was waiting there looking very nervous, she started playing with her fingers and muttering something to herself. Something about, I hope this isn't a trap, and, I hope they don't double cross me."

"Yup, definitely the Quarian we're after."

"I can go back and kill her for you, if you're after her. You know to make up for killing Fist."

"No! We need her for some information she has." I finally felt comfortable enough to get out of my cover and face the Krogan who was now walking across the bridge over to us, his weapon gone.

"What exactly is it she has, that you need?" He said to me, tilting his big red scarred head.

"She has."

"Shepard! You can really trust this.. this Krogan with that information can you." Oh great here comes Ashley's racism. Wrex turned to look at her, narrowing his eyes on her and baring teeth.

"Yes, I can, he is just a bounty hunter. He doesn't care about Saren."

"Wait, you're after Saren? That fish head cost me so many bounties, he always gets to my targets before me, thanks to his Spectre privileges." Garrus looked at Wrex as if he was hurt, okay maybe Wrex is a little racist too. Garrus raised a finger as if he was about to comment back to Wrex but I beat him to it.

"Maybe you come with us, maybe you help us find Saren, and maybe I let you put the bullet in his head once we catch him." I gave Wrex a smile, hoping he would accept my offer. He looked at Ashley and smiled, while she stared back looking confident. Wrex then turned to Garrus, who still looked upset about the insult to the Turian race, even if it was at the expense of Saren, and Wrex smiled. And finally he looked at me, scanned me from head to toe, and put out a hand for me to shake. "Is that a yes then?"

"Yes, I like your team, it takes a lot of courage to stand up to a Krogan." He looked at Ashley. "But even more, to insult one in his presence." He turned back to Garrus. "And a great person to stand up for ones race, even if that ones race includes a fool like Saren." And now to me. "And a great leader to keep those two in line, so the team stays strong." We all smiled at his compliment. "Come on now, I'll take you to the girl, hopefully she's still alive."

We pressed on through to the alleyway we were at before. No one said anything on the way there, we were all very content with Wrex. Behind his hard exterior, he was a very nice man, and a very smart Krogan. Most Krogan would have just killed us and left without a second thought, but Wrex was different, really different for a bounty hunter too. Even Ashley seemed to like Wrex, after the compliment he gave her. "Here we are." We rounded the corner, to find in the distance a Quarian, slim with wide hips in a sliver and black colored exo suit, with a purple cloth wrapped around her. She had weird shaped legs, from under the knee the legs bent back and she only had three fingers on each hand._ Now that I'm thinking about it, I have only ever seen one Quarian before, my adoptive brother Richard, and he is male. I had never seen a Quarian female before, in person at least. I was only ever stationed on human colonies, and there were never any Quarians on them. Someone told me they have Eastern accents, that is if we are talking about Earth, like Russian or something. She was messing with her fingers, twirling them around each other. Well that's definitely the Quarian. We better go down there and get her before the assassin's show up. _We started walking towards her but a Turian walked up from a corner of the alley, and she stopped twiddling her fingers. They started saying something.

"Where's the Shadow Broker. Where's Fist?" She questioned the larger Turian sounding upset.

"They're not here, I came in their stead. Where's the vid." _The vid, that must be what has Saren's incriminating evidence on it._ He started to draw his hand down the side of her face. _Oh this asshole is going to get it. Why do I feel so protective of her already, probably because she has those files we need, yeah that's it._ "You've got very pretty eyes. It's a shame really."

"What's a shame, get off me. The deals off." She smacked his hand away, she turned to leave, but he grabbed her by the arm. _Okay, now it's time to move, she can't do this all by herself._

"It's a shame I'll have to shut those eyes, forever." He smiled and drew for his gun, but she beat him to it. She stuck her shotgun right into his gut and fired. That sent him back a few feet, but his shields held. And now two Salarian assassin's started coming up from behind her. She threw some kind of a flash grenade, and hid behind some crates.

"Wrex, do us a favor and take the Turian down. We'll handle the Salarians" He smiled, a little to deviant of a smile.

"With pleasure." Wrex charged forth yelling nothing in particular, just yelling to scare the Turian. The whole alleyway seemed to shake with each step Wrex took. Wrex took his claymore out and tackled the Turian to the ground. The Salarians stopped to take aim at Wrex but it was my turn to intervene. I charged forward, with my assault rifle in hand, I quickly took out the Salarians by myself, with half a magazine into each of their chests, the strongest part of their armor, but the weakest part of their bodies.

"You can come out now." I said in the Quarians direction hiding behind the crates. While Wrex was not shooting the Turian with the Claymore shotgun, but beating him with the end of it. _Damn, I'm glad he's on our side. _"Are you okay?" She came out looking at us, determining if we were friend or foe.

"Yes I'm fine, but don't say it like that. You can come out now. I wasn't hiding, I was finding better cover." She seemed a little upset, like I didn't think she could handle herself, but she did very well back there, nearly killed the Turian with that shotgun.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Die! You! Fish! Head!" Wrex's pounding of the Turian was getting annoying, I could start to hear the bones of the Turian start cracking. He might not be dead, but he should be unconscious.

"Wrex! That's good enough, I think he gets the point." He looked up at me and got up from the Turian, and kicked him before he walked over to us. He looked at us questioningly, when we just stared at him and then the Turian.

"What, I haven't killed anything in a while."

"You just killed Fist, a few minutes ago." He shrugged.

"A few minutes is too long." I smiled, hoping he was just kidding.

"Wait you killed Fist. Well I guess that solves one of my problems. But now what do I do with this information on Saren. The Shadow Broker was supposed to get it." The Quarian's voice turned me around. _What do you know, it is true, about the eastern accent._

"Well, what would you say to giving me that vid, and helping every living race around all planets from being killed by the Geth and a rouge Spectre named Saren. You would be doing a lot of good, and I'm sure I can find some way the Alliance could compensate you for helping us out." She looked at me, and then at our team.

"You seem like to have good intentions. As long as I can help someone out then I'll give it to you, and you don't have to pay me." _Wow, cute, charitable, and a badass. I like this girl. Speaking of which._

"What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, how impolite, I'm Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Tali. We should get going, Anderson and Udina will want to see that vid, or recording." Wrex was already moving for the end of the alleyway, towards the door and Garrus following soon with Ashley. We started to follow them when we heard a sound come from the Turian's body.

"You... Bitch!" He rolled over to face us and had a pistol in his hand, a high powered, pistol, clearly given to him by Saren, or Fist. I reacted quickly pushing Tali out of the way, raising my gun and firing at the Turian's still bruised and broken body from Wrex's fight with him. I shot twice, killing the Turian once and for all. It was a wonder he had survived his wounds.

"That was close, sorry I pushed you out of the way for nothing Tali." I reached for her hand, feeling bad about pushing her when no one even got hurt, doesn't really count as saving her life. She just looked at me, and then down to my stomach. "What?" _Why is this alley getting darker, and why do I feel so light headed._

"Y... You're shot." She still didn't take my hand and instead pointed to my stomach. I looked down and felt the armor that covered my stomach. I felt a hole, about an inch thick, when I brought my hand back up there was blood on it. A lot of blood.

"Shit." I whispered and then laughed. Soon I started blacking out, falling to the ground, the last thing I saw was Tali and everyone else looking down at me, Tali and Garrus tried to help me. Garrus looking for a med kit, and Tali trying to put pressure on the wound through the armor. Until finally, it all went black.

* * *

Thank you for reading, It took me a while to put this one out and is a lot longer.


	6. Another scar

**Jack Trader:** I do agree with you on the descriptive aspect of my writing, it needs work. I read your review when I was writing the latest chapter and tried making it better and lengthier, because I went back and reread when Shepard was fighting with Saren and it was very short, shorter than it should have been in my head. So I'll try making them more descriptive, I think I did well with the last chapter and am going to continue being more descriptive when describing an area, and when describing characters.

* * *

Mass Effect: A new Life

VI

I woke in what seemed a second after going unconscious, lying on what felt like a cold, hard, and narrow bed, similar to the one I had during basic. I could faintly hear mumbling around me, I was still too tired to understand them. I start to open my eyes slowly, my eyelids still feel heavy, and as they started to open, I was met with a blinding white light. Shutting my eyes immediately because it hurt, and I had a crazy headache, worse than the one I got from the beacon. I turned my head away from where the light was at, with my eyes still closed, and opened them. I now saw in front of me a white sheet, and white beds, in fact, almost everything here was white. If this was in heaven, and I was dead, then I really need to complain to God about the lights.

"Michel he's moving, he's awake!" Came the voice of Garrus. _Oh so this is the clinic, good, I don't want to die yet, I need to kill Saren first. Once Saren dies, then I can die happy, but he's not going to die when I'm laying around in bed wasting away. I need to get up._ I moved my arm slowly trying to draw the covers off myself, but my arm was restricted by something. _I need to open my eyes, Michel probably has me on a bunch of meds and that's why my eyes hurt. _I slowly opened my eyes again, ignoring the pain, and saw Garrus, Ashley, Kaidan, Michel, and the Quarian Tali. I looked down to my arm, some IV's were on them, I tried to rip them off but was stopped by Michel.

"What are you doing Commander, you need those. You lost a lot of blood, luckily your team got you back in time to get you patched up." I looked around at all of my friends._ Friends, hmm, I'd like to think they are my friends, but they all have their own reasons for following me. Garrus for justice I suppose, Kaidan and Ashley because they're paid to, and Wrex because he likes killing I suppose. Michel and Tali aren't apart of our team, although I would like to take them with us though. Michel is a great doctor, but we already have Chakwas, and Tali, well I'm not sure what she does exactly, but I'd like to have her on board._

I felt my stomach where I remembered getting shot by someone, although most of it was a blur, I could feel a small circular scar, adding another to my large collection of scars. I finally mustered up the strength and awareness to speak up. "I need to get to Anderson and Udina... and tell them we got info on Saren." Garrus, Kaidan, and Ashley smiled at me, admiring my persistence against Saren. Michel however just frowned, not understanding why it was so important to give the information to Anderson and Udina. But Tali, I couldn't read what she was thinking, it's hard to read her emotions with just her wide bright eyes being the only thing to observe. Michel was about to start talking, and would no doubt tell me I had to stay, so I but in. "I know, I have to stay here for a while, and regain my strength, but how long will that be?"

"Well you were out for a few hours, so I'd say another hour and you can get back to work, but be careful about it. You know we had to pick pieces of your armor out of your wound, the would wasn't that deep but it left a noticeable scar, considering it was about an inch thick." After she finished talking I nodded towards her, telling her I understood. _Damn, is it really that bad, I don't exactly remember how it happened, how did I get shot?_

"Hey, how did I get shot, and how did I get back here? I don't exactly remember, Tali?" I asked, looking at Tali now, who sighed before speaking up in her mechanical sounding eastern accent. _She sounding like she didn't want to tell me, was she annoyed with me that much, I hardly said a few words to her. Maybe it's because she has a grudge against the Alliance, or thinks I'm flirting with her, and she already has a partner. I'll probably have to find out later._

"It was kind of scary, you had just saved my life, twice, and were bleeding out on the floor. But this is what happened when you were out."

* * *

**Tali's POV**

"What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?" Said the human who's team called Shepard. _Wow, he's amazing, those Salarians he just killed were assassin's, and he didn't even hide for cover like I did. He's very brave and handsome, with his light skin complexion, blue eyes, brown hair he combed back, and the stubble he had growing around his mouth and chin. With his handsome features he also bore a warriors features, he had a few scars on his face, two of which were the most distinct. He had one that ran across the bridge of his nose for about three inches, and another on his chin only an inch long. Wait a minute, did he ask me a question? Oh yes, that's right, my name._

"Oh, I'm sorry, how impolite, I'm Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." _Pull it together Tali, you're here on your pilgrimage, not to browse the Alliance army for potential suitors._

"Well, it's nice to meet you Tali. We should get going, Anderson and Udina will want to see that vid, or recording." _Damn, why do I have to be such a bosh'tet, I could have used the money he offered me to take back to the Flotila as a gift, but instead I turned it down. It was the right thing to do though, one shouldn't request money for doing a good deed, like giving the Alliance evidence against Saren, or else it wouldn't be a good deed anymore._ We turned towards his other companions, a giant Krogan, who had just beat the skull in of the Turian that nearly killed me. And there was the Turian who seemed rather quiet, walking towards the Krogan with the human girl following. She however looked upset at something, maybe she doesn't like working for Shepard, what if he is a bad guy, and I am giving him evidence about the traitor Saren, and he could use it for ulterior motives._ No, can't be, he saved my life, he could have just let me die and then taken the files on Saren._ As Shepard and I started to move towards the rest of his squad, I heard a choppy voice from behind me.

"You... Bitch!" It was the Turian, the one that had been beaten dead, or at least I thought dead, by the Krogan. Blood was still dripping from his mouth, and his head looked almost smashed in with an eye gouged out. _I thought the Krogan killed him, how is he still alive, one of his eyes are missing, and his skull is deformed from the Krogan's earlier beating. _Once he saw me, he raised a pistol, a very expensive looking one, and aimed for me. _This guy is going to finish his job no matter what, why wouldn't he just lay there and wait until we left, so he could limp out of here escaping with his life. _Shepard pushed me out of the way, I fell down behind a crate we were standing next to, out of harms way. I heard two shots go off, or maybe it was three, with one hiding under the crack of the others. I turned myself around to face Shepard, hoping the shots all came from his gun. And there he stood, looking proud that we were both still okay, but we weren't. I looked down to his stomach where a hole was located, about an inch thick, and pretty deep.

"That was close, sorry I pushed you out of the way for nothing Tali." _Does he really not feel it, is he that strong, or is he losing so much blood that he can't feel it. _Still staring at his stomach were the bullet hit, I noticed him look at me, squinting his eyes questionably. "What?" _I can't believe it, he's going to die, and it's my fault, I should have left here quicker, so the Turian never would have gotten up in time. It's all my fault._

"Y... You're shot." I was pointing to his stomach, and he took notice. Drawing his hand away from me, and instead feeling his armor around the hole, he brought his hand up to his line of sight. He didn't look scared or hurt, he just stared at it. It's possible he has never been shot before this badly, and doesn't understand the seriousness, or it's possible he thinks he's going to die now. He mumbled something quietly, it sounded like a human curse word, then he laughed for an odd reason I didn't understand, and fell backwards to the ground.

"Oh, no! Shepard are you okay, can you hear me?" I questioned him, hoping for an answer, but I got none. All he did was stare back at me, and now the Turian who had came over with the others to help. He was looking for a med-kit, or anything to help his leader. While I didn't know what else to do, not being trained in the medical field, I tried to put pressure on his wound, once we got the armor off around his chest and stomach that is. "What do we do, we need to get him to a hospital."

"I thought I told you to die you Turian Pyjak!" I looked to the Krogan who ran towards the dead body of the Turian. He started beating it ruthlessly, I think he knew he was dead, but still smashed the Turian's armor in all the same. He must really care for this Shepard if he would take all his anger out on a lifeless body, but he is a Krogan, so maybe he just feels like beating something up.

"Wrex! Stop that, we need you to carry the Commander to Michel's Clinic!" Garrus yelled towards Wrex, who had just finished ripping an arm off the Turian, looking like he wanted to eat it. "Hurry, we can't carry him and get him there fast enough, you have to." Wrex got up from the ground, and walked fast over to Shepard.

"Fine! But if any, and I mean any of you tell him about this, I might just forget we're on the same sides, and make my next meal out of you. Carrying someone for an extended period of time for Krogans, means you have an interest in mating with them." _I really hope he's joking about that eating us thing. Someone might have to tell Shepard what happened if he comes to, and I don't want that person to be me._ Wrex, the Krogan, picked up Shepard's body, and started for Michel's Clinic. On the way there, we passed by many civilians who gawked at our team of aliens carrying an Alliance Commander around. When we made it inside the clinic, Michel's eyes widened at the sight of Shepard, laying lifeless in Wrex's arms.

"What happened to him!" She asked, nearly yelling, and rushing over to Wrex, leading him to an empty bed to lay Shepard on.

"He was shot. Shot by a Turian assassin, hired to kill me." I told Michel, sounding depressed at my last words. _It really is my fault isn't it, he wouldn't even be here if I had just killed that Turian, instead of shooting once and hiding. _"What can we do to help doctor?" _I'm not just going to sit by and let him die, no more watching like I did when Shepard cleared out the assassin's, and like I did when he got shot. I need to help._

"Tali can help me, one of you needs to tell someone about this, I don't know who, Shepard's bosses probably."

"I'll go." The female marine left the room to go find Shepard's boss, whoever that was, and tell him he had been shot.

"Okay, what do you need from me now?" I asked, wanting to help Shepard in any way I could. Michel's head started darting around the room looking for something, her eyes rested on a counter near another bed, and she pointed it out.

"There, go get my bad of supplies, we need to get these pieces of armor out of his wound, lest they get in too deep, and we will never get them out." _This sounded serious._ I ran for the bag, and came back opening it for her, handing her gloves, medicines, and some tweezers. "Good, now put that face mask over his mouth, we need to make sure he is unconscious before we started picking at him, it wouldn't be good if he woke up now." I did as she said, attaching the face mask to him, and coming back to help again. "Now you need to help me pick these pieces of armor out of him, before they get deeper and cut him up from the inside." I grabbed some tweezers and was ready to help, we picked about 23 fragments of armor out of him and I let her stitch him up once we knew that was all the pieces. Whatever gun that was the Turian used, it definitely isn't a normal gun, definitely something Saren had bought him.

"Okay, is that it?" I asked her, making sure that I had done all I could do.

"Yes, his vitals are good, he should be awake soon. You and Garrus can stay with him for a while, until he wakes up if you want." I looked back to Garrus, who was sitting in a chair not far from the bed Shepard was on. _Did he really stay here all that time we were picking pieces out of Shepard._

"You two must be very close friends, you and Shepard." I said looking towards Garrus, who looked as dead as the Turian who attacked me, minus the blood and cracked skull, he looked so very tired. "You stayed with him all night, just waiting there, making sure he would be okay." He looked up at me, where he was previously looking at Shepard.

"You know, actually I only just met him about a day ago. And you only just met him a few hours ago, and we both stayed here with him. I don't know, I guess I just respect his leadership and strength. He is a very good man, he wouldn't even take part in executing the injured thugs at Fist's bar. Some might say that means he is weak, but it just means he has morals about execution, he knew it had to be done though, he didn't want them to suffer a slow death." _Well at least I know he isn't a ruthless leader now, but instead a caring, and smart one._ "Why did you stay with him, and help save his life?"

"Well, he saved mine, twice in fact. So I needed to return the favor." Garrus just nodded, not saying anything else, but just sitting in silence, waiting for Shepard to wake. _After another hour Shepard started mumbling something, Garrus was sleeping and Michel was in her office. I couldn't understand what it was, so I leaned in towards him to hear what he was saying._

_"Adam, Jenny, come with me... Richard stay here, guard... be back soon... Where are they hiding... Ambush... Adam... Richard... Jenny... Bastards... Anderson, I can't... I'm sorry... It'll never... be the same... But I'll try."_ _What was that all about, he must be having dreams of some kind of war. _I grabbed for his hand, holding it, still doing anything I could to make him feel better. I could see through his eyelids, his eyes were moving back and forth, he was definitely dreaming. I shouldn't be listening, that's very intrusive of me. I let go of his hand and moved back a little in my seat. The rest of Shepard's crew, excluding Wrex came back and Garrus woke up after a few minutes, and saw Shepard moving.

"Michel he's moving, he's awake!"

* * *

**Shepard's POV**

"Wow. You guys went through all that trouble for me. I'm very grateful of course, but still we need to get to Anderson and Udina, now that I should be healed and ready to move. Is that okay Michel?" I looked Michel's way, and received a smile and nod. I still hurt pretty bad, but needed to get to Anderson so we can start up a new trial, considering Ashley went to tell Anderson about me, he will want to see the evidence. I looked towards Tali, now knowing why she sighed when getting ready to tell her story. Not because of me, but because she didn't want to get eaten by Wrex. "Tali, stay close to me, and Wrex won't hurt you, or eat you, I promise." I said teasing her, and smiling.

"Oh no, do you really think he'll eat me!" Tali shrieked in terror, not understanding my joke. All I could do was laugh at her false fright, and she looked at me as if I was crazy. "Why are you laughing, he's going to eat me."

"Tali, I don't think Krogans actually eat people. Or at least I hope not." She started to get even more scared, and I was a bit scared to. _Do Krogans actually eat people, if so, I've never seen it before._ "It's okay, I'll talk to Wrex later, I'm sure he was just kiding, or we can just say you never told me about what happened then." Tali nodded up and down fast.

"Yes, let's just not tell him." She pleaded looking me in the eyes, while fiddling with her fingers. She noticed me looking at her hands, watching them dance on each other, and put them behind her back.

"It's okay Tali, I don't mind it, in fact, I think it's cute." I smiled at her and she looked away. I'm not sure if it was because she was blushing under that mask, or because she felt awkward. I still don't know if she has a boyfriend, or mate, or something. "I'm sorry Tali, I didn't mean to upset you."

"Upset me, no Commander you don't need to apologize. It's just that... well people on the Citadel haven't exactly been welcoming to me, considering I'm a Quarian. I just didn't expect you to be so nice is all."

"Well let me tell you, as long as you stick next to me, I won't let anyone insult you or any member of my team." _What are you doing Shepard, you told yourself you wouldn't get involved with someone military, causes mixed feelings on the field. Although I'm not sure what she does, she carries a mean shotgun, and that makes me think she has plans in the military._

"Does this mean you're asking me to be apart of you're crew?" I gave her a nod, and I could see her eyes light up ten times brighter. "Oh thank you Commander, Thank you!"

"Well, we should get going. You should come with us Tali, to present your evidence to Anderson and Udina, our bosses. After all, we wouldn't have gotten any of it without you, what do you say." She looked back up at me, and I think I could see her smile from behind her visor.

"Sure, that sounds good Commander."

"Go ahead and call me Shepard, everyone else does."

"Okay, Shepard, lets go." She stepped through the door, and we and the rest of our team made our way to Udina's Office. With me slowly walking with them, It would take me a few days to get over these wounds, hopefully we wouldn't get into any more fights.

"Shepard, I forgot to tell you something." Ashley came to my attention, and I only hoped that it wasn't something to important she forgot.

"What is it Ashley?"

"When I was sent to find Anderson and tell him about you I couldn't find him, I could only find Admiral Diesburg, who was walking around the Citadel with a few guards. He told me he was on a mission from The Alliance, to go talk to the Council. So I told him about your wounds, he told me he would tell Anderson and Udina. So I don't think it really matters, just thought you should know." _I guess that's fine, it's not like he is an enemy, just not a friendly person to me. But if it comes down to Alliance safety matters, like keeping quiet about a wounded N7, I'm sure he won't do anything stupid. He has probably already told Anderson._

"I don't know why he would need to talk to the Council, but if he was the only person you could find, then so be it. Thank you for telling me about this though Ashley." We both shared a smile toward each other, and she continued walking with us to Udina's Office. _Hopefully Saren will turn himself in without a fight. I know he won't, but I wish I could just take a break from all this fighting, because I feel like there will be a lot more coming up soon._

* * *

**Admiral Diesburg**

Sitting down on my bed, in the room I was provided by the Council, I started a call with Saren. "Saren sir, I come to you with knowledge about Shepard. Apparently, he was wounded by the Assassin you hired for the Quarian girl. Sir, he is weak, we could strike now. I had an agent of mine trying to find out where he lives, I asked him to go to Avina the AI and ask for his room location. We know where he is staying, and can kill him easily now that he is wounded."

"And what of the Quarian girl? Is she dead?"

"Uh... I asked her and she told me, but it wasn't very clear, she said something about her dying, or maybe about her wanting her to die, and something about the rest of the no-good aliens dying."

"Well, I guess we don't need to worry about her anymore, and that means Shepard might not have the files of us talking, so we should be fine. I don't need your assassin, he could just end up failing and blabbing my name, I'm not going to chance it." _Damn, I hope he's right about that, I can't lose my rank as Admiral, at least not yet. But this is my master's wishes, and I will obey._

"Yes sir, but what of Fist. I heard he died, will that be a problem?"

"No, he wasn't really helping anymore, all I needed was for him to kill the Quarian girl, and now that is done, we should be good." _Wow, Saren really doesn't care about anyone does he?_

"And what if I would lose the ability to help you anymore? I can trust that I would be safe right?" _He was silent, thinking over what he was going to say._

"Of course you would be, you are a very valuable part to this now admiral." I cut off the connection with him after he finished talking. _I really hope this turns out well, I hate Shepard, and I won't let him live. Why should he live and be a hero when my son is dead and forgoten, I will get my revenge, one way or another._

* * *

**Note: **Anything in Italics is all thought, so when Tali heard Shepard talking in his sleep, she didn't mention that to him once she retold the story, she just thought about it.

And thank you to nugget4ever7, and starwarsjunkie8786756 for following


	7. The New Spectre

Mass Effect: A new Life

VII

The walk to Udina's Office was a long one so far, I started tripping over my feet because the drugs I was given haven't worn off yet. I had sharp pains come in and out through my stomach, and I started walking with a limp because of it. If we get to the Council with the information on Saren, and they also decide if I'm going to be a Spectre or not, I really don't look to be in the best shape, I'm walking like an old man. It's pathetic really, I nearly fell down once, and Tali and Garrus had to catch me from falling. _If this shit doesn't stop, I'm afraid I'll be kicked out of the Alliance, honorable discharge, damn. I guess there's no reason to be quiet all the way there, might as well start a conversation. _"So... Tali, what is it you're here for exactly, shouldn't you be back with your fleet." She looked at me in silence for a second, and then spoke up.

"No, I'm on my pilgrimage, it's a coming of age thing for Quarians. We leave our homes on the Flotilla, and are sent out to find something useful for our people, and bring it back. This shows our use to our Admiral, if we bring back something important and are successful on our journey, then they would accept the gift, and welcome us to their crew." _A lot of people just make small talk for the purpose of breaking the silence, but not me, if I'm going to talk to someone, I should be interested in what they are saying, and for Tali I was._

"So can an Admiral deny the gift?" She shook her head looking at me while we were walking.

"It's very unusual if they do, it usually doesn't matter about the gift, Admirals just like having more crew, because the more crew you have, the more respected you are."

"And what is it you do exactly Tali?" She chuckled lightly. _Did I say something funny?_

"Well, I didn't know you knew so little about Quarians, I'm a machinist, or engineer. Most Quarians are." _Oh, well, I guess I need to learn a little more about all species, if she thinks this is such public knowledge._

"Maybe you'll find something important for your pilgrimage following me, because after all, we will have to hunt Saren down more than likely. We all know the Council won't do a thing about it, but rather leave it to us."

"That sounds great Shepard, I just hope I won't be a burden, I'll try to stay out of the rest of your crew's way, probably just stay down in the engineering room, you won't even notice I'm there."_ Why does she say that about herself, is this what every species has done to the Quarians, making them doubt themselves._

"Tali, you won't be a burden, you will be treated just like any other crew member, I promise you." She didn't say anything, but rather nodded instead, _probably not believing me, and she had every reason to, she doesn't know me that well and has been treated poorly by all other species her entire life._

"Well here we are, Udina's Office." We walked in after passing by his secretary, who waved us by, and we were met with Anderson and Udina.

"Ah Shepard, I trust you are back with some sort of evidence." _Straight to business, no greetings, that's our Ambassador._

"Yes Udina, I... Well Tali, has found some evidence incriminating Saren. Apparently it's a recording of him and other conspirators talking." Anderson smiled at me, glad I got my job done. But Udina smiled a more devious smile, obviously excited that we got dirt on Saren, and can finally take care of him. And Tali looked happy that I mentioned it was her evidence, and that she was the one that found it, _I'm glad she's gaining more trust in me and the human race. Before I came along, she seemed to think that there were no good people outside of the Quarian race, and for the most part she was right. All people care about anymore are themselves, and most, if they want to help you, are doing it for ulterior motives. _

"Well, Quarian, play the recording." _And he just ruined it, here I am thinking humanity is for the most part, better than the other races, racism wise, but Udina just killed it. That's his one chance, if he says 'Quarian' like that again, then I won't hold back._ Tali looked down to the recording she had in her three fingered hands and stared for a bit, _everything I said to her, about not all people being complete assholes was just flushed down the drain, thanks to Saren, I'm not going to let Udina deplete her confidence._ Tali clicked a button on her recording, and voices started playing.

"The mission on Eden Prime was a success, but this human, the one who destroyed the beacon, could be a threat to us." That was definitely Saren's voice, although there was some static from the recording, it was clearly him.

"This is the Saren you are looking for right?" Tali asked, making sure that the recording actually helped us. Udina looked happy, he recognized the voice too. Stile smiling with joy, Udina looked a Tali.

"Quiet Quarian, I'm listening to the recording." He said, in a soft tone, but it was still an insult all the same. Both my hands balled up into fists, and I restrained myself from hitting him, but only because I started feeling pain in my stomach again. _No more, If he says it again, I'm knocking him out. No, what am I talking about, he's an ambassador, maybe yelling at him is as far as I can go._ Tali looked back down to her hands and played the recording again. This time a woman's voice started up

"His name is Shepard, he activated the beacon, and now has all the knowledge we have, and could put a stop to our plans. But he knows not of the Reapers, we should act quickly, none the less." It was indeed a woman, in fact, she sounded like an Asari.

"I don't know who the woman is, but she's no doubt one of Saren's accomplices" Came the voice of Anderson, nodding has he spoke. I looked to Udina now, who was rubbing his chin in contemplation. He spoke up, now looking at Tali

"What are the Reapers? And we need to find out who that woman is, she's clearly important to Saren." Udina was still rubbing his chin, as if knowledge of these Reapers would just come flooding into his mind. "So that's it?" Tali nodded to Udina, putting the recording away.

"That was all I was able to salvage from the Geth, the Geth destroyed the rest of it's memory of the conversation." Tali said to everyone in the room, looking back and forth, from me to Anderson and Udina, hoping she didn't disappoint us. "But about the Reapers, when I heard the message the first time, I went around asking if anyone had ever heard of these Reapers. Most of the people ignored me, but I did find a nice Hanar that told me all about the Reapers. They believe that the Reapers were responsible for the extinction of their Gods, Enkindlers they call them, Reapers are supposed to be extinct now." Tali finished, and waited quietly for a response.

"Yes, I hear the Hanar preaching about the Enkindlers often, they are actually a race of aliens called Protheans. Good work, uh..." _Anderson paused, waiting for her name probably. He could have just said Quarian, but I think he saw how angry it made me, and he thought it best if he used her real name. I have always hated it when a race gets shit for no reason, the Quarians are good people from everything I've heard of, the Batarians are the only race that deserves everything they get._

"Tali, my name is Tali." Tali said, sounding happy to be apart of our mission, to bring Saren down, and because Anderson was treating her with respect.

"Yes well, if this is it, then we better get this to the council, and rub it in that bastard Saren's face." Udina said, still sounding far too pleased. "But where will this Quarian go, now that she gave us this information, I suspect she'll be wanting some sort of reward." _That's it, he's done it now._ My fingers involuntarily clenched into a fist tight against the my palms into my armor, and I could hear every knuckle crack and pop. I caught a look at Anderson, wide eyed, and appeared to be begging me not to hit Udina, I could see it in Anderson's eyes. If I hit Udina, it definitely won't look good in front of my new team of Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, and Tali, all of who except for Tali had remained silent for the most of our discussion, and Wrex who last I heard from Garrus, said he had another bounty he had to collect on, so he left for a bar somewhere. And not to mention, Udina could kick me off of the Citadel, considering he is an Ambassador, and could even have me taken off as candidate for spectre. But I have to say something.

"Her name is Tali!" I yelled at Udina, and he turned to me looking shocked that I had the guts to say anything. "She is the reason we've gotten this far, and you should use her name." Udina, now looking at me with disgust, rather than the original surprised look he had, questioned me.

"But why do you care for this Quar... Tali... woman anyway?" I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment at getting the stubborn ass Udina to heed my demands, _I wonder if I frighten him? I guess I did punch Diesburg not but a few days ago, and I'm sure he wouldn't want to suffer the same fate. I think I am the only one who would actually punch Udina, most of the Alliance doesn't personally know Udina for the prick he is. Maybe Anderson would punch him, but then again, Anderson has never done something like that before, I doubt he would do something like that, as awesome as it would be to watch._

"Because, she is a member of my crew now, along with Garrus and Wrex. And all members of my crew will be treated with respect." My voice gradually became more calm, and I glanced at my team to see what they were thinking. Tali looked frightened with a touch of gratefulness, I assume no one has ever stood up for her before, and she probably didn't know what human meeting were like, she probably thought we were going to start shooting each other. Garrus was standing tall at attention, with Kaidan and Ashley standing next to him on his left. Kaidan looked around awkwardly, most likely wishing he could just disappear, due to the shear awkwardness of not being mentioned amongst part of my crew, but I didn't mention him because it was aliens this conversation was about. And Ashley, looked indifferent to the mess that was my insubordination, she didn't care about any species that wasn't human, and that upset me, because I cared about all races, with the exception of the Batarians. And Anderson looked pleased enough that I didn't hammer Udina's face in with my fist.

"Very well Shepard, I suppose we should get going to the trial then, whenever you are ready, meet us up there." Udina mumbled, very awkwardly scratching the back of his head, not knowing what else to say. And I took a huge breath in and then released, once he had left, the anger was gone, all I had to do was yell at him. Anderson followed Udina without another word to me, I don't know if he was ashamed of me, or just wanted to let me cool down for a bit. The same with Kaidan and Ashley, they left without another word, and left Garrus, Tali, and I alone in Udina's office. I could feel them both looking at me, while I just walked over to Udina's balcony and looked down at the many civilians going about their every day tasks. Holding on to the railing and leaning forward, I could feel my stomach pains come back, the bullet went through an already existing scar, and I gripped at my side.

"Shepard, are you okay?" Tali asked me, coming to my side and looking up at me, and Garrus did the same.

"Maybe you should lay down Shepard, that was a pretty big scar I saw on you." Garrus spoke to me now, they were all just trying to help, but I was fine, just a little ache.

"No, it's fine guys, and the scar you saw wasn't from just that bullet. I already had a scar there, I was wounded pretty bad in an ambush a while back, but I only had pains for about a week, so I'll be fine again in no time." They both stood on my right, and gave me looks that said they wanted me to elaborate, but I don't feel I'm ready to discuss Elysium with them yet. "We should really be getting to the Councilors, we shouldn't keep their pompous selves waiting, should we." I smiled at Tali and Garrus, making it clear what I thought of the Councilors, nothing but a joke, the councilors that is.

"You ever think the humans will get someone on the council for their race Shepard?" Garrus asked me as we walked out of Udina's office. _While we're making our way to their throne room, it should be good to start some small talk, get to know my alien friends more._

"I think me becoming a spectre is the step we need to get to councilor, although I'm not sure how good it will be for our race, with Udina as councilor. Not that he is the only candidate, and that's not to say he isn't a good politician, because most politicians are out for the betterment of themselves, and fabricate lies faster than I could take down an entire army of Batarians, which come on, it's me were talking about, this war isn't going to last that long, especially because it's the Geth we're fighting." I got a chuckle from Garrus, but he stopped immediately for some reason. And Tali just stared at me while we were walking.

"What does that mean Shepard?" Tali's voice changed from the original innocent robotic russian sounding voice, to a new KGB robot from hell voice, _I liked the old voice better, what was it I said, was it, Oh shit, I made it sound like killing Geth is easy, and they lost their home to the Geth._

"Tali, that's not what I meant, it was just a bit of fun, just a joke." I was pleading my case, but she didn't budge from her death stare toward me, not even taking the time to look where she was going, she just stared at me.

"That may be, but I don't appreciate you making jokes at our expense." Her voice pitch went back to the cute Quarian voice I usually heard. _Could this be because she has mixed feelings about me standing up for her earlier, and now me joking at the expense of her people, she probably feels guilty, I should let her now it was my fault, because it was, I should have been more considerate and remembered their history with the Geth._

"Tali, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, it's my fault." She gave me a nod, but still refused to talk again, and for about a minute we all walked silently to the next part of the trial, but I couldn't just leave it like this, this is too awkward. So I spoke up, to both Garrus and Tali, not taking the time to look back and forth between them, Garrus on my right and Tali left, I just stared forward, talking. "I had a brother, not a real brother, but an adopted brother. His name was Richard, we didn't know his real name because we, or my parents actually, found him on earth, abandoned by his parents." I saw from the corner of my eyes, the two aliens, Quarian, and, Turian, staring at me, waiting for me to finish the story. "He was Quarian." Tali seemed to be intrigued at that, and had a question.

"How did that work, Humans and a Quarian, living together?" _I assume she'll have many questions until we got to the Council, and I planned to answer as many as I could, without going to deep into my life, I only just met these people after all. But I still felt bad about upsetting her, so maybe telling her about my Quarian brother will lighten the mood, and assure her I am a good man with good intentions, and not a racist who spews hate and makes jokes about their culture. After all, the Quarians lost all of their planets to the Geth, if it had been the humans, then the person that had just made a joke about us losing Earth, would probably be bleeding on the floor right now. Damn, I'm imagining beating some guy into a bloody pulp because he made a joke about humans, I have got some serious problems, maybe I need to talk to Anderson some more, he always seems to calm me down, after all, he's been a father figure to me for a great while._

"Easy, we taught him English, taught him some history of Earth, and he went to Human school with me, it was weird for a while, but I got used to him. We were just like brothers, and our parents loved us both the same." Tali nodded slowly, understanding what I was saying, and wanting me to continue. "We both enlisted into the Alliance Military, except Richard was Quarian, not human, so he didn't get paid the same, or treated the same. I was stationed on Earth with him for a while, and then we both got transferred to Elysium for a few months. And long story short, I got the Star of Terra, after being ambushed and defending Elysium with my squad, and with a few civilians we rounded up to help and protect." We were nearing the elevator to the Council, and Tali wanted to get one more question out before we got in and made our way up. But I already anticipated what it would be.

"And where is Richard now?" She stopped and waited for an answer. _I forgot she doesn't really know anything about me either, she's very young and lived on the Flotilla all her life, why would she have heard of me. I just got used to most everyone knowing the story of how my entire squad, perished, I figured she'd know._

"He's dead." Tali seemed shocked, no longer staring at me while we were walking to the elevator, but instead faced in front of her, staring at her feet as we came up to the doors. Essentially mourning my lose, by becoming silent and staring at her feet, and now her hands started to fiddle with each other. That made me smile. S_he seems so confident all the time, but sometimes she plays with her fingers when she thinks a conversation has gone awkward, or is nervous. She probably thinks it upset me, that she asked, Richard died a long time ago, when I was nearly 19._ "It's okay Tali, it was years ago, their deaths don't upset me anymore, but their killers do." I clenched my fists again, thinking of the Batarians sickens me. We stepped into the Elevator when it came down to us, and this elevator, unlike the rest, was rather fast, so we wouldn't get much time to talk. I noticed Tali wasn't messing with her fingers anymore, and instead was looking at me. _What did I say now?_

"You said their, as in, there were several people you knew that died." _Oh, that, damn, I didn't want to go into this now. _The doors opened, and I saw Anderson, and Udina waiting for us. _Maybe another time, first we need to bust Saren. _I walked outside of the elevator, not answering Tali's question until we were walking up the stairs, I looked to her.

"I'm sorry Tali, maybe another time, we need to deal with the trial first." Tali understood it was too personal of a subject to go into yet, and nodded, I think I even saw her smile. It's still hard to tell, but with time, I'll be able to read expressions with ease. _Oh, damn, I completely forgot about Garrus, poor guy was completely ignored when I was talking to Tali, that must have been awkward._ "And er... Sorry Garrus, I know I didn't get much time to talk to you, I hope you didn't feel left out."

"Not at all Commander, I was just calibrating a few things while you were talking with Tali, I only heard bits and pieces of your conversation, sorry." _I'm not sure if he's saying that to hide how awkward it would have been to be the third wheel in our conversation, or if he was actually ignoring our conversation._

"Do you calibrate your weapons and shields often?" Garrus' eyes looked to the ceiling, like he was thinking back to the times he's calibrated his weapons.

"People tell me I do, but honestly I don't think I do it any more than anyone should." I nodded, still not believing that he could have been that into calibrating when I was telling the story of my past, _maybe he really does calibrate often, oh well, it doesn't matter._

"And by the way, didn't I tell you it was okay to call me Shepard? And if I didn't then it's okay to call me Shepard, I'm not all about formality Garrus, this isn't C-Sec."

"I understand sir, it won't happen again." _Sir? This guy doesn't know when to stop with the formalities, C-Sec must be hard on him._

"You don't need to call me sir either, and this isn't an order Garrus, I just want my team to be relaxed around me. I'm not built to be an officer Garrus, I'll always be a soldier first." Garrus nodded, and I think he smiled, I never really spent much time with Turians, and the hard features of his face made it difficult to tell if he was indeed smiling. We made our way to Anderson, after climbing a few stairs, and moving past some people.

"Shepard, Udina has already shown the evidence to the council, hurry." _Wow, Udina really can't wait a few minutes for me to walk here before he starts the trial again, he really wants this to end fast._ Udina was standing at the edge of the platform that extended to the Council over a glass dome, that encased some plants.

"You wanted proof, there it is." Udina pointed to the Council for his dramatic effect, and all of the Councilors bowed their heads in disappointment most likely, disappointment that they were wrong about Saren, that he was a traitor.

"The audio recording hasn't been tampered with, it is true." The Turian councilor said, looking at the Geth device. He must have thought we would make a fake recording to criminalize Saren, they clearly don't understand out motives.

"Of course it's true, Saren has been a traitor long before our last trail, and he evaded your detection because he was a member of the Council race, you thought he wouldn't do a thing against the Citadel, or the Hierarchy. It's about time you put your trust in someone else... someone new." The Councilors turned their attention from Udina to me.

"Are you suggesting becoming a Spectre, Commander?" I gave a small smile, thinking to myself, _is this really what I want to do, become a Spectre. I have always had a great hatred for people like Saren, who have so much power, they often abuse it, but in my hands, I can do great good with all that power. I already have a team gathered and ready to fight Saren, and I could use the benefits._

"You will need someone to hunt down Saren. Charge me with bringing him to justice, whether it be in court, or at the end of a barrel. If you grant me the title of Spectre I will use that to find him, and you won't need to send an army after him, I can take care of him with my crew." The Councilors silently convened with each other, they all gave nods and looked back to me.

"Very well Commander, step forward." _Wow, that was easier than I thought, my silver tongue prevails, I always thought I was a good diplomat, not that I'd ever want to become a politician._ I looked to Anderson, who was standing on my right, and then back to Tali and Garrus, they all smiled and gave nods, encouraging me to go forward. Udina on the other hand just moved out of the way, so I could move up to the front. "It is the decision of the Council that you become a Spectre, and be charged with bringing the traitor Saren to justice." Said the Asari Councilor, who I always determined was the leader of the Council, if they had a leader, because they were the first to join, and she always stood in between the other councilors. Now was the Salarian's turn.

"Spectre's are not trained, but chosen, they come from extraordinary backgrounds, and are the hands of the Council." And back to the Asari.

"Spectre's are a symbol, of courage, devotion, and leadership. They are instruments of our will." I looked around to my left and then right, and noticed many different races looking at me, I assume they thought they were watching history, and they were, I am the first human Spectre. And finally the Turian Councilor.

"Spectres bear a great burden, they are keepers of peace, enforcers of justice, the first and last line of defense for the Council." That seemed to be the end of my swearing in, and after the Councilors pushed a few buttons on their keypads, they looked back up at me.

"You are the first human Spectre Commander, this is a great accomplishment for your entire race." The Asari Councilor added that, and I still felt our conversation wasn't over, what of the Reapers.

"Thank you Councilors, but there is one more thing at hand here... The Reapers. They must concern you." The Turian councilor shook his head in disagreement.

"The Reapers are a myth Commander, they are not to be feared by anyone other than children. That will be all, thank you." The Turian councilor waved his arm forward, motioning for me to leave, like I was a pet or something, and he was telling me to shoo. _Not even a minute in and they are already treating me like their pet, terrible._

"You ignored my advice last time, and that only delayed my time to catch Saren, wouldn't it make since to listen to me on this, even if there is little evidence to support it?"

"No Commander, I'm sorry, we can't act on this unless we had actual proof." _Well I guess I can't blame them, I wouldn't really believe me either if I heard there were Reaper monsters that destroy all civilization every 50,000 years._ "We will be giving you updates that will help you on your mission Commander, good luck." The Councilors all turned and left through either of the side doors on their side of the room. I turned around and began to walk down the platform and back to the elevator, Anderson would have to get us on his ship and taxi me around, to try and find clues as to Saren's whereabouts.

"Shepard, wait, I won't be able to come with you on this mission, Udina still thinks there's to much history between Saren and I, so I've given command of the Normandy over to you. We can give you updates too, and help along your journey." _No, Anderson was leaving, because Udina want's to keep him away from Saren, that's terrible. Udina stole command of the Normandy from Anderson, and gave it to me._

"That's not right sir, he can't do that." Anderson smiled at me, he didn't have much reason to smile these days, but when he did, he smiled because of me. _When I say he is a father figure to me, I really mean a mother figure, because he acts more like my mother did. My father never really had much time for me, and didn't talk a lot to me, until he found out I wanted to become a marine, then he couldn't stop talking to me. But my mother always had my interests alone at heart, always thinking about me before herself, and she was a soldier too, just like my dad, but always made time for me and Richard._

"It's okay Shepard, I'm getting old, the crew needs a hero and Spectre like you as their leader, not me. Now get out there and bring justice to the thousands slaughtered by Saren's hand."

"Yes sir Anderson, I trust I'll be seeing you again soon, as of now, I really have no idea where I'm going, I'll need those updates."

"Of course, now go speak to your crew, tell them your in charge now, and don't be too hard on Joker, he's a good kid." _Ha, Joker, I'm glad he's my pilot, he's a funny guy, which is implied by his name, although he say's he was called that because he wasn't very funny during basic, and it was more of a joke than a serious name._ Anderson and I shook hands, and I continued to walk to the Normandy, we should leave right away. And I assume I could get a few free weapons from C-Sec, now that I am a Spectre, I can get better weapons, I'll have some delivered to me, I need to rest now, I'm starting to feel more pain in my stomach. I made my way through The Wards, and found Admiral Diesburg roaming around looking for something to buy at the shopping district. _I wonder what he's doing here._

"Admiral, what are you doing in the Wards?" He turned at the sound of my voice, but instead of locking eyes with me, he looked to Tali. And after scanning her up and down, he asked her a question, completely ignoring me.

"Who might you be ma'am?" _Why does he find her so interesting, not that she isn't interesting, but, why would he want to know her name._

"I am Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali seemed suspicious of him, because other than me, no human has ever asked for her name before, or at least that's the way she made it sound. After Tali gave Diesburg her name, his hands started to tremble, and he immediately started sweating. He looked like he had seen a ghost, or like he was all of a sudden extremely sick.

"Admiral are you okay?" Normally I wouldn't care if he was sick, but this looked like he was going to die any second.

"Yes... Shepard, I'm fine. I just need to talk with my superiors for a second, I've learned something they need to know about immediately." He started backing away from us, still trembling, and still looking sick to death.

"Okay Admiral, uh... Goodbye." He left quickly, back to his room or to his ship. _That was weird, I hope he's okay, as much as we hate each other, I hope he's okay._

* * *

**Admiral Diesburg's POV**

I logged onto my omni-computer, and began to call Saren, he should hear it from me first that the Quarian girl Tali lived. He could have lost his Spectre status if they have already presented the evidence. "Saren, hello, there's some news, and you should hear it from me first." the orange glow from the omni-computer spread throughout my dark room I was allowed for my week on the Citadel, and Saren's form started to appear on my screen.

"You mean the news that the Quarian girl lived! And that I have lost all my Spectre privileges! Or maybe the news that you were wrong, and I should have had my assassin kill Shepard when we had the chance!" _This won't be good for me._

"Saren, it's my fault, I didn't know she survived." Saren was pacing in and out of the view of the computer, steaming with anger.

"You fool! This means Shepard will come after me, they gave him Spectre status!" _I didn't know that part._

"Sir, we can still come back from this, Shepard is still on The Citadel, we can assassinate him now." Saren stopped pacing and stared at me, I felt like he could grab me through the screen, and strangle me to death, but I was safe here, in my room.

"Do what you will, send your assassin before he leaves The Citadel. If he fails and is killed so be it. Now don't call me until he is dead, and if he doesn't die, don't bother calling back." At least he started to calm down near the end, I need to contact my assassin and send him fast.

* * *

Sorry this one took so long, it's been like three weeks since an update, I plan to update weekly, like I was doing, but I just got sidetracked, this chapter is over 5000 words long, so hopefully that makes up for it.


	8. A Helpful Assassin

Mass Effect: A new Life

VIII

So, apparently we couldn't leave The Citadel until they cleared my name as a Spectre, and until I got my new weapons, so I decided to turn in for today, and go to sleep. I'd only get one more day on The Citadel before I had to embark on my journey to find Saren, so I might as well sleep in my big comfortable bed, in the room they provided me. It was a better room, larger than the last, when I first arrived here. In fact, everything was better, I had a softer bed, I actually had a bathroom, when last time I would have to leave my room and find a public one somewhere. There was more space, more tables, it even smelled better. _The Council really likes to pamper their pets, and I hated that I was one of those pets, but I might as well make the best of it._

I spent several hours sleeping, but it was far to boring being in here all by myself, I needed to talk to someone. _Maybe I'll go see how Wrex is doing, he should still be at that bar, Turian Cuisine is the name of it. I'm not sure if he knows what the name means, it's a bar where mostly Turians and Quarians eat at, but he probably thought it meant they served Turians as Cuisine, I hope he was joking about that eating people thing, that kind of scares me. Maybe I'll take Garrus and Tali with me, after all they are the only ones who can drink at that bar, and not be killed or have a fatal reaction to the food. They were each given a room next to mine, so it shouldn't be that hard to find them._

I got up and got dressed in my officers jacket and pants, the only thing that I had that wasn't armor. I did hate the way it felt, clinging to my skin, I wasn't made to be an officer, just a soldier. _I really need to find some regular clothes while I'm at The Citadel, maybe I'll visit a few of the shops here. _I walked out of my room, after combing my brown hair back in its usual position. _I wonder if it's smart to leave without a gun, it's not like anyone on The Citadel wants me dead, just Saren. I wouldn't have anywhere to put it anyway, I might as well just get going._ I first stopped at Garrus' door, to ask him if he would come along with me to go find Wrex. I rang the buzzer that was located above the doors keypad, and spoke into it. "Garrus, you in there? I was wondering if you'd want to come have a drink with me and Wrex, that is, if we can find him." The light above the door turned on, a bright white color, which notified me the door was now unlocked. _I guess that's my cue to come in._

"Hey Shepard." Garrus spoke up when I entered his room, and closed the door behind me. He was sitting at a desk next to his bed, messing with some data tablet.

"What you got there Garrus?" I said pointing to the device in his hands. He looked away from it, and looked to me, with some worry on his face. "What?" I said, looked to my left and right, started to get paranoid at his silence.

"Shepard... I think someone tried to kill you." Garrus said, and went silent again, waiting for my response.

"I really wish you would have told me that before I took a high powered round to my stomach that knocked me out for a few hours, and could have killed me. But thanks for the update anyway." I smiled near the end of my response, finding it comical that he only just realized that Turian wanted me dead.

"No Shepard, you misunderstand. I mean someone tried to break into your room a few hours ago." _How did they even know I live in that unit, the Council made it clear to me in their message, that they wouldn't tell anyone where we were staying, as the first human spectre could be a target for any crazed bounty hunter._

"But, how do you know it was an assassin. It could have just been someone who forgot which room was theirs. Or some reporters trying to get into my room and murder me with their ridiculous questions. Or even a crazy fan of mine, who wanted an autograph... as much as I'd hate to say it, I was stalked by a crazy Asari girl, who had heard of me, and new that I was a war hero. But she's in jail now, so I wouldn't think it could be anything like that."

"Uh... Well, I guess it could have been something like that. But I'm going to pull the surveillance vid from the halls anyway, just to be safe." I nodded, understanding there's no point in not checking, _even though I'm sure it's nothing important. How could anyone except for the Councilors, and high ranking Alliance officers know where I am._

"So, how about that drink?" Garrus rose to his feet, presumably ready to move out with me.

"Sounds good Shepard, are we going to bring anyone else along?"

"Oh yeah, I was going to get Tali too, if she wants to come. Lets go see if she wants to come with us." Garrus was immediately ready, and walked out of his room with me, and we resumed walking down the hall, until we got to Tali's room. Garrus rang the buzzer this time, speaking into it.

"Tali, me and Shepard are going to go have a drink. Do you want to come with us? This is after all, our last night on The Citadel for a while." Garrus let go of the button, and waited for a reply. But none came, nor did the light above her door turn on, to let us in. "Tali?"

"Maybe she's not in there, maybe she went out to go buy something before we left The Citadel." I propositioned to Garrus, waiting for his reply.

"But the door light is off... It's locked. Tali, if you're in there can you open the door?" Garrus was silent for a while after speaking, waiting for an answer.

"You don't think that supposed assassin you were talking about could have gotten in her room... Right?" I asked Garrus, who probably had the same thought in his head, because he reached for his gun. "Wait, don't I need a gun too." Garrus gave me a pistol and backed away from the door aiming his gun at the lock, where behind it laid the hatch that kept the door locked. I put myself into position next to Garrus, waiting for him to open the door. _It's not like she's changing or doing anything private that we could walk in on, after all, she can't take of her suit._ I looked to Garrus and nodded, ready to breach Tali's room. _It's so weird this is happening, I just got up from bed not but a few minutes ago, and now, Garrus and I are in battle mode, ready to kill an assassin._ Before Garrus could fire his gun, the light above Tali's door turned white, and the door opened, to reveal a tired looking Tali, standing with a hunched back, and eyes squinting.

"Shepard... Garrus... what do you guys want?" Tali said looking at each of us, and then looking at the guns in our hands. "Who were those meant for?" She says while pointing at the guns in our hands.

"Uh... Garrus thought there might be an assassin on the loose, and he thought they might have gotten in your room." Garrus narrowed his eyes and turned his head at me.

"You were the one that propositioned they could have gotten in Tali's room not me." _Well I guess I did._

"Oh come on you two, you both look foolish enough standing at my door, weapons drawn because you thought an assassin was in here, you don't need to fight like children in front of me to." Smiling through her mask at our false security measures, she turned and walked back into her room, leaving us to follow.

"Maybe it was stupid, the world isn't full of intrigue anymore, the medieval ages are over, and now everything is about diplomacy, and the might of your army. And now, thanks to us, Saren only has the later of those. And it's up to us to take his army away as well." I said, after entering Tali's room and looking around, pleased with what I saw in both of their rooms, Garrus and Tali had rooms identical to mine. _It's nice to see the Council doesn't discriminate against races, considering Tali's race isn't on the Council, and Garrus' is, they still get the same rooms._ "Tali what took so long to open the door anyway? Were you sleeping?"

"No, I haven't slept since I first met you Shepard. And that's a good thing, in a way, because my father has taken notice to me, knowing I am on a journey with the first human Spectre to stop the false Spectre, Saren. Or, I guess we can't call him a Spectre anymore can we? That's all I told him though, I know the Council doesn't want us telling everyone, so I only told him the small stuff. But that's mostly what I've been doing, contacting some admirals about my progress on my pilgrimage, and talking to my father, and another Admiral, Shala'Raan." _Wow, she hasn't had any time to sleep, I met Tali nearly two days ago, and she hasn't slept._

"I was going to ask you to come with me and Garrus to get something to eat before we left, or do some weapons shopping, but it sounds like you need to rest before you just drop dead." Tali shook just shook her head.

"No, I'm awake now, and if I try to go to sleep, I'll probably just lay awake for a few hours anyway. I'd like to go eat with you, doing something fun, or even just talking would be nice. A lot better than being shut in my room for hours, messaging my father."

"That sounds good, if your feeling up to it, we can go now, and try to find Wrex too. He's eating at Turian Quisine." Tali stayed sitting in her chair next to her desk, thinking about what I just said.

"What food do they serve there?" Her voice sounding of fright, and terror. She waited for a reply.

"He's probably eating Turian, or if he just wanted a snack... Some Quarian." Garrus didn't seem fazed by my joke, in fact, I don't think he thought Wrex ate Turians, like Tali truly did. Tali, on the other hand, seemed to shiver at the mention of a massive, scared, Krogan eating her people. "Nah, I'm sure he's just there talking to a friend, or trying to kill someone... and not eat them."

"If you keep this up Shepard, Tali's going to have nightmares." Garrus laughed afterwards, and looked at Tali, who didn't looked frightened anymore, but looked more like the evil Russian Alien I saw many hours ago.

"Bosh'tets." Tali whispered under her breath, making Garrus laugh more. And I started laughing too, at the expense of poor Tali. _What does Bosh'tets mean anyway, must be the equivalent of bastards._ Tali started to laugh as well. "You don't think he actually eats Quarians right... all joking aside."

"I'm sure he doesn't Tali, maybe you should ask him if we see him again, but if you do, make sure he's had a good breakfast, lunch, and dinner too, or else I can't guarantee your safety." We were all still laughing, and Tali was next to speak.

"And by the way, things like that doesn't scare me, not a lot of stuff does. And I don't have nightmares, I don't think a lot of people do anymore." Our conversation got more serious, but we were still laughing somewhat, and blurting out whatever came to mind first.

"Not true, a lot of people still have nightmares." I stopped without saying another word, or laughing another. _What an idiot I am, I ruined a perfectly good time with my damn past. Even though it's been years I still remember it, the nightmares don't help me forget either. _Everyone else was quiet too, someone had to break the silence. "Well, if you're ready, then we should go."

"Sounds good Shepard." Garrus said, standing up followed by Tali. We left Tali's room, and headed for the bar Wrex was supposed to be at.

On the way to Turian Cuisine, many species, from humans, to Elcor, and everything in between looked at me as I walked by. No doubt they had all heard I am the first human Spectre. Some of them smiled, mostly humans. Some of them just talked amongst themselves about me, trying to whisper, but failing, because I could hear my name come up several times, paired with Spectre, Hero, and I even heard a handsome from some Asari girls. _Damn, I don't even have to try and people love and know my name. The Hero of Elysium, I shouldn't have been 'the hero,' I should have been 'a hero.' There were a lot of other men and women that bled with me on Elysium, but, I was the one proclaimed hero. I denied the star at first, but then Anderson, and even Hackett persuaded me to take it. They said it would be what my unit would have wanted, and that it would spite the Batarians, so I did it._ When we got to the bar, I told Tali and Garrus to go find a table somewhere, and I would order some food. I approached the Waitress to ask for something to eat, because Garrus didn't care what he had, and it didn't matter to Tali because all it would be is nutrient paste, they told me just to get something.

"Excuse me, ma'am, I was wondering if I could pay for a table and some food for me and my friends." I said to the purple skinned Asari, dressed in a long green dress, revealing far to much cleavage for me not to notice. Luckily she didn't see me look at them because she was too busy ogling me. "Ma'am." Trying to get her attention, off my body, and to my eyes, I called her again. "Can me and my friends get something to eat." I said pointing behind me to where Garrus and Tali sat, talking with each other.

She looked behind me, where I was pointing, and then her head jerked back, looking back at me. "I hope you aren't talking about that poorly dressed Turian, and that suit rat." _Damn it. I really don't want to have to strangle this bitch with my bare hands. I'd rather blast he away with a shotgun. No, no, Shepard, stop with the homicidal thought, maybe I can just resolve this diplomatically._

"And what if I am?" She laughed silently at me, and then her face returned to a concerned look.

"Oh, you're not joking. It's just, a man as attractive and wealthy as you must be, shouldn't be dining with a C-Sec failure, who obviously is only C-Sec because the Hierarchy military wouldn't take him, and a repulsive suit rat." _Diplomacy has failed me again, this bitch gets one last chance, before things get ugly._

"If you insult my friends... one more time, I can't be held responsible for what happens next." Now she smiled at me. "I'm not joking, I'll squeeze you like the purple grape you are, until you pop."

"I hope you're not threatening me."

"Oh, I'm not threatening you, I'm promising you. You Asari think you know everything, being able to live for hundreds of years doesn't just give you experience. You get experience by living those years, not wasting them away in some bar, or dance club. I know your type, you'll blow this off after I'm done talking, laugh about it, and go on with your day, while thinking to yourself, was he right about me. You talk and look at others with such disdain, not because you think yourself better, because you were the first on the council, but because your afraid of what they can become, of what they're capable of. Now, I'm going to ask one more time, can Commander John Shepard, buy a table and food for him and his companions?" The Asari girl looked at me questioningly, _She probably didn't know I was the new human Spectre._ Then, the Asari girl, turned with a tear in her eye, and walked away in a hurry. _Good, serves the bitch right, I hope that eats at her for a couple of weeks. _I looked around, to make sure no one had saw me go off on the girl. I guess we wouldn't be getting anything to eat either. I made my way to the table where Tali and Garrus sat talking, with another Krogan person. "Wrex, glad we could find you here."

"Hey, Shepard, where have you been?" Tali spoke up, and turned to me, smiling about something. "Why do you look mad?" _I was dealing with incompetence, that's where, and why._

"It's nothing, I was just trying to get us something to eat, but the waitress acted rude, so I spat in her face and left."

"Really, that's a little harsh." Garrus said, taking a sip of a drink. _How did he get a drink._

"Where did you get that drink from?" Garrus took another drink and set it down.

"A friend of mine came by, another Turian, he was in the C-Sec training academy with me. He didn't pass though, and instead did something else, like mercenary work I think. It's good money. He was looking for you actually, he seemed surprised and a little sad when I told him I knew you, I told him to come back later, and you could talk to him."

"Why does he want to talk to me?" Garrus just shrugged, so I returned to talking to Tali

"And why were you smiling and laughing earlier Tali? Were you all picking on Wrex?"

"No, I just asked Wrex if he actually eats people. He doesn't, so I'm just relieved I'm not going to die any time soon." Tali smiled again, looking back at wrex who was messing with the menu lying on the table. "Oh, I forgot, I needed to talk to an Admiral friend of mine, Shala'Raan, she wanted to hear from me again a few minutes ago. I might try to get some sleep afterward, sorry I couldn't stay longer Shepard."

"Not at all Tali, it's fine, now go get some sleep." I gave her a smile as she stood up from the chair and turned to head for the door. "So, how are you guys then?" I said as I sat down in Tali's previous seat.

"Fine... Did that little Quarian really thing I was going to eat someone? Does she think the Krogan are savages? I was only kidding when I said that."

"I understand Wrex, but you don't exactly have the most friendly sounding, looking, or acting disposition to you."

"Yeah, I guess being a Krogan does do that to you."

"It's nice here, having a table next to this balcony, I can see most of the people down on the Citadel walkways." _It's very nice, as I said and admired the location, I just looked for a while, I could see all the way to another building from here, it was the building that housed our rooms. Tali was probably already in her room knocked out on the floor from pure exhaustion._

"Commander Shepard? I was looking for you." I turned behind me to the new voice that interrupted my peaceful silence. "I'm Garrus' friend, Vectilus."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." This new Turian, Vectilus looked at Garrus with a sadness in his face. I think I remember seeing him before, but where. He wore a black and gray armor, and was strangely familiar to me. The blue eyes he had were rare for Turians, in fact, I don't think I've ever seen a Turian with the type of blue eyes he had.

"Garrus, I was hoping you would be gone by now. I'm sorry you had to stay for this." _Ouch, I thought they were friends. What's he getting at._

"What do you mean Vec." Garrus questioned his Turian friend, using a nick name, these two must have been close. Vectilus seemed to notice something behind us, while we were faced towards him, he looked on past us, outside of the bar, and over to where our apartment unit was located. Vectilus pulled a gun from his back, making me react and reach for my empty pocket. _Oh, right, I'm in my officers uniform._ He aimed it not at me, but behind us, where he was looking. The next thing I heard was a shot, but not from Vectilus' gun, but from the sound of it, a high powered sniper rifle. The sound made me spin around, away from Vectilus, who I thought was about to kill me. I didn't see anything, just the dark roof of our building. When I turned back around to where Vectilus stood, he no longer stood, instead he lied dead, in a pool of his blood. "Vectilus!" Garrus shouted, and reached for his sniper rifle. While I said and did the only thing I could do without a gun.

"Everyone, get down!" I ducked down, and tried to hide myself on the ridge of the balcony next to our seats. _I feel like a coward just sitting here, but what else can I do without a gun. _I peeked my head above the edge of the balcony, and heard Garrus yell something again.

"I see the shooter!" Garrus took one shot, looking into his scope, and once he shot he looked out of it, looking at where he shot.

"Did you get him?"_ I feel so useless._

"I did, I think I got him in the leg. Damn it!" Poor Garrus, I doubt his friend is alive. _The only useful thing I can do now is check his friend._ I went to the side of his friend who was miraculously still breathing, with a bullet just under his neck, I knew he could make it, and these would be his last words.

"I'm..." He reached for the collar of my shirt, pulling me towards him with what strength he had. "I'm sorry." He exhaled a light breath,and let go of me, his eyes started to lose their blue color, _does this happen with all Turians, his eyes are changing color, back to a gray color. It's probably best not to ask Garrus, as he just lost a close friend to him. _

"I'm sorry Garrus, he's gone." _It's all my fault, that must have been the assassin we thought we saw that killed him, if I would have listened to Garrus, I never would have left my room, and Vectilus wouldn't be dead._

* * *

**Tali's POV**

I had just left Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex to talk amongst themselves, and was heading back to my room. To talk to my auntie Raan, and maybe my father. I was nearly back to my room when I heard something a ways behind me, it sounded like a gunshot. It turned me around in a second, and what I saw scared me. A Quarian man was running but with a limp from a bullet wound in his leg, he wasn't bleeding but by the way he was limping, his foot or even leg was probably broken. I couldn't see his faceplate because he wore a robe made of some type of thin fabric around himself, very odd because the armor should definitely help more than that, and he couldn't be trying to hide his face because you can hardly see what Quarians look like anyway through their mask. All I could describe him as, is having what looked like black and orange armor through his robe, or cloak. "Excuse me ma'am." He said in a raspy but very calm voice, kind of what mine sounded like when I just woke up. _This guy must be tired too. _I moved out of his way, and watched as he turned around to look at me before turning down the left hallway. _Who shot him, he couldn't be a criminal, he's such a nice guy, seemingly. It could be some thugs picking on a Quarian. If it is, then I won't run, I'll fight them, Quarians are treated like dirt too often. _I saw some C-Sec come around the corner, from where the wounded Quarian came from, they were running towards me yelling at me.

"Move, suit rat, where did the other one go!" I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but, I did it anyway.

"He went that way." I said, pointing to the right hallway. They looked down at their guns, making sure they were still loaded, and pushed through me, telling me again to move, even after I told them where the other Quarian went. I didn't regret telling them the wrong direction, they might have been C-Sec, but what crime could that Quarian have committed that warranted them to chase after him, when he had no weapons. I turned back around to where the C-Sec used to be standing at, and a lone Turian C-Sec stood staring at me, with his gun still in hand.

"My other partners might be idiots, but I'm not. I saw him go left, and you my dear, are a lying bitch!" He yelled at me, and then dropped his gun, and punched me in the stomach. "You disgust me, you piece of shit. He killed a Turian not to long ago, and you would let him go, he's probably on the Flotilla by now, but let me tell you this. You won't make it back to the flotilla." I dropped to the ground holding my stomach, he then reached for a knife on his belt, taking it in both hands, and kneeling on the ground next to me. If he so much as tears through my armor I'm dead, lethal cut or not, all because I wanted to help a murdering Quarian. I wouldn't get to see my father again, or Autie Rann, and most of all Shepard would probably never know what happened to me. Just as he was about to stab me, I heard a familiar raspy voice.

"Are you a man, or a snake, that you would threaten a woman?" I, still holding my stomach, looked up to where the wounded Quarian stood tall and proud, holding the gun I never thought he had, but was glad to see.

"You damn suit r-" The Turian kneeling over me was cut off by the crack of the sniper rifle held in my saviors hands. When he shot his entire body jolted. _That's definitely a powerful gun to do something like that._ The Turian dropped backward and the knife in his hands fell to his sides, completely missing me. I collected myself, getting enough strength to stand up again, and talk to the Quarian killer, that had just saved my life. But he was gone.

* * *

At least I didn't take three weeks to update this time, just two and a half. I recently had to get my computer fixed, so I couldn't write anything for a while... So that's my excuse. Anyway, follow, favorite, if you like the story, and review if you have something to say. Also, please pardon any spelling mistakes, or grammar errors, I'm trying to cut down the most noticeable ones, or the ones that completely change the meaning of a sentence. I'll try this time to get the next chapter a week apart from this one, and then maybe get on a regular schedule.


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